‘No, darling, I certainly wouldn’t call you a witch,’ said my husband. ‘You’re not thin enough.’
The Oxford English Dictionary has just published a new entry for witch. It is less dismissive of old women. The former version spoke of a ‘repulsive-looking old woman’. Now it is ‘a term of abuse or contempt for a woman, especially one regarded as old, malevolent, or unattractive’.
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