Same in German, where Hexe seems to be pretty much the equivalent to wiedzma, while Hexer or wiedzmin doesn't really exist at all. The only other case I have heard of it was Edgar Wallace story, where it is a translation of "The Ringer"."Wiedzma" isn't like "wiedzmin" at all (In Polish)! - in meaing. it's two different things. I've never read or heard the world "wiedzmin" before Sapkowski's books. Moreover, "wiedzma" = "witch", in Polish is associated with female, 1. old lady, doing some dark magic with herbs and spells, mostly bad or 2. old lady using herbs to heal ppl (it's true image from history, not the false one). "Wiedzmin" is a male who uses herbs, potions and magic BUT meant to kill monsters and is a mutated human ("wiedzma" is rather to create monsters). I think Sapkowski invented that because we have no "wiedzma" males, it's always magician / sorcerer (mag / czarodziej) in Polish culture. In Wikipedia we have no encounter of "wiedzmin" other than connceted with Sapkowski's fiction. However, we cannot argue that the world "wiedzmin" origins from "wiedzma" but inflectionally. The best thing is to ask Sapkowski
In English -er is used for someone who does something, so a teacher does teaching, a hexer would do hexes and a witcher does witches
Sounds about right.
In Czech (language somehow relative to Polish) it is "Zaklínač" which is also a completely new word. It's not even devived from the feminine witch as in other languages because we actually have a masculine word for it. It's derived from a word "zaklínadlo" which means something like an incantation. I find it a very cool, seductive word.
A witcher in English fits this exceptionally well. It may have a little different background but it has the same fresh "taste".
A witcher in English fits this exceptionally well. It may have a little different background but it has the same fresh "taste".
