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>The German word "Hexe" stems from Middle High German "hecse" or "hesse" and Old High German "hagzissa" or "hagazussa".
>The first part "hag" is likely related to Old High German "hag" for fence or hegde
>The origin of the second part "zissa" is not clear. Usually it's said to be related to Norwegian "tysja" for "female elf"
>So the origin of "Hexe" may be something like "female creature on the border between two worlds". It's used for women only since the late middle ages
>In German "Häckse" (with a very the same pronunciation as "Hexe") is sometimes used by and for female hackers
>Hecate has survived in folklore as a 'hag' figure associated with witchcraft. Strmiska notes that Hecate, conflated with the figure of Diana, appears in late antiquity and in the early medieval period as part of an "emerging legend complex" associated with gatherings of women, the moon, and witchcraft that eventually became established "in the area of Northern Italy, southern Germany, and the western Balkans."
>This theory of the Roman origins of many European folk traditions related to Diana or Hecate was explicitly advanced at least as early as 1807 and is reflected in numerous etymological claims by lexicographers from the 17th to the 19th century, deriving "hag" and/or "hex" from Hecate by way of haegtesse (Anglo-Saxon) and hagazussa (Old High German). Such derivations are today proposed only by a minority since being refuted by Grimm, who was skeptical of theories proposing non-Germanic origins for German folklore traditions
>The first part "hag" is likely related to Old High German "hag" for fence or hegde
>The origin of the second part "zissa" is not clear. Usually it's said to be related to Norwegian "tysja" for "female elf"
>So the origin of "Hexe" may be something like "female creature on the border between two worlds". It's used for women only since the late middle ages
>In German "Häckse" (with a very the same pronunciation as "Hexe") is sometimes used by and for female hackers
>Hecate has survived in folklore as a 'hag' figure associated with witchcraft. Strmiska notes that Hecate, conflated with the figure of Diana, appears in late antiquity and in the early medieval period as part of an "emerging legend complex" associated with gatherings of women, the moon, and witchcraft that eventually became established "in the area of Northern Italy, southern Germany, and the western Balkans."
>This theory of the Roman origins of many European folk traditions related to Diana or Hecate was explicitly advanced at least as early as 1807 and is reflected in numerous etymological claims by lexicographers from the 17th to the 19th century, deriving "hag" and/or "hex" from Hecate by way of haegtesse (Anglo-Saxon) and hagazussa (Old High German). Such derivations are today proposed only by a minority since being refuted by Grimm, who was skeptical of theories proposing non-Germanic origins for German folklore traditions
