Dictionary

athame en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /əˈθeɪmeɪ/ (UK)
• /əˈθɑ.meɪ/ (US)
• /ˈæ.θəˌmeɪ/ (US)
• /əˈθɑːmeɪ/ (UK)
• /ɑˈθɑ.meɪ/ (US)

Etymology

From French athamé in a 1929 passage from É.-J. Grillot de Givry (see 1931 citation below), apparently from Medieval Latin artavus (“quill-sharpening knife”). Artavus was also mistranslated into artauo in an Italian manuscript. The arthame was conflated with the cortel nero (“black knife”) by Grillot de Givry, and that conflation was passed on to Gerald Gardner (whose 1954 book Witchcraft Today introduced Wicca to the public).

Meanings

1. A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and typically having a black handle with magical symbols on it.
   • The athame is a black-handled ritual knife—one of the most common distinguishing marks of the Neopagan Witch. 1999, James R. Lewis, Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions, page 22:
   • Tradition says an athame should never have drawn blood. 2023, Skye Alexander, The Kitchen Witch, Simon & Schuster (Adams Media), page 60:
   • Agia was quicker, making a cut at my neck with an athame before his weapon was free of the scabbard. 1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 60:
   • She is moving with a regal gait, grasping the arthame, or magic knife. 1931, Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry, chapter 7, in JC Locke, transl., Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy:

Forms

Translations (4)

es átame (ritual dagger) · fr athamé (ritual dagger) · la artavus (ritual dagger) · es daga (ritual dagger)

wikipedia: Witchcraft Today · wikipedia: Gerald Gardner · wikipedia: Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry