Dictionary

hedge wizard en · NOUN

Etymology

From hedge (“third-rate”) + wizard (“someone who uses magic”). Compare hedge priest, hedge whore.

Meanings

1. An inferior wizard; a wizard of limited ability and little or no formal training.
   • To the young hedge wizard, a wizard of only 5th level seems to be a mighty archmage. 2002, Mike Mearls, The Quintessential Wizard, page 11:
   • "I don't know of any great mage in the Bitterwood," Daene said. "Hedge-wizards aplenty, and weather-witches—every village has them." 2016, Rowan Speedwell, Bitterwood:
   • He talked of magic, which she found interesting. She'd never spoken to a true wizard before. Hedge wizards, perhaps, but never someone as knowledgeable and powerful as a spire wizard. 2020, Russell Archey, The Seven Spires:
   • "And Portravus has no mage—" said mousy Herjes, looking as much frightened as worried. "Just a couple of hedge-wizards and some assorted Low Magick practitioners. And not a lot of money to spare to hire one." 1988, Mercedes Lackey, “Dragon's Teeth”, in Spell Singers, page 52:
   • There was something hysterical about the way Mouse insisted on that ‘great,’ for to the world Glavas Rho was but a hedge-wizard, no better than a Mingol necromancer with his second-sighted spotted dog or a conjurer beggar of Quarmall. 1962 October, Fritz Leiber, “The Unholy Grail”, in Fantastic, volume 10, number 11:
   • “Hedge wizard” is a term that’s come up in my campaign to describe the proprietors of small “magic shops” in villages and cities in AD&D® campaigns. Hedge wizards specialize in minor but useful magicks, using spells like mending and knock rather than magic missile and irritation. Hedge wizards are usually low-level mages with sage and herbalist abilities. 1990 November, Gregg Sharp, “Hedge Wizards”, in Dragon, volume 15, number 6, page 19:

Forms

Hypernyms

bewitcher · archmagician · theurgist · thaumaturge · mage · illusionist · sortileger · magus · whiz · whizz · witch doctor · charmer · shaman · spellbinder · obeah · wiz · spellcaster · wonderworker · magic user · spellmaker · Karcist · conjurer · wizard · archmage

Relateds

hedge witch