Magic Etymology: The Persian Roots of the Word Magic
by Alishba Khan, fact-checked by Junaid Khan. Updated
Magic comes from Middle English magique, taken from French and Latin magice. The Latin word came from Greek magike, which goes back to magos, a word for a Persian priest or sorcerer. So the word magic first meant the art of the magi.
How to say it: /ˈmædʒɪk/ (noun · adjective · verb)
Key points
- Magic entered English in the 14th century.
- It came from French, Latin and Greek, in that order going back.
- The deepest known root is Old Persian magus, a priest.
- Mage, magus, magi and magician all share the same root.
What magic means today
Today magic has two everyday senses. It can mean the power to make impossible things happen with spells, as in fairy tales. It can also mean the tricks a stage magician performs, like pulling a coin from your ear. As an adjective it describes something special or wonderful, as in a magic moment. Both senses grew from one old word for a priest.
Where the word magic comes from
The word magic took a long road to reach English. Merriam-Webster traces it to Middle English magique, borrowed from French, which took it from Latin magice. Latin got it from Greek magike, the feminine form of magikos, meaning magical or Magian. That word came from magos, a magus or sorcerer, which is of Iranian origin and akin to Old Persian magus.
In simple terms, a magos was a member of a Persian priestly class. The Greeks saw these priests as experts in hidden knowledge, so their art became magike, the art of the magi.
| Language | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Old Persian | magus | priest, sorcerer |
| Greek | magos | magus, sorcerer |
| Greek | magikos, magike | magical, relating to the magi |
| Latin | magice, magicus | magic, magical |
| French | magique | magic |
| Middle English | magique, magik | use of supernatural powers |
How the meaning changed over time
The meaning of magic narrowed and widened as the word moved west. In Persia it named a group of priests. In Greek it became an art linked to those priests. By the time it reached English in the 14th century it meant the use of supernatural powers. Much later it gained a lighter sense of tricks and of anything delightful.
| Period | Stage | What the word meant |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient Persia | magus | a priest of a specific class |
| Ancient Greece | magike | the art of the magi |
| 14th century | magique, magik | use of supernatural powers |
| 1906 | to magic (verb) | to make something appear or vanish as if by magic |
| Today | magic | spells, stage tricks, or something wonderful |
Words from the same root
Magic has a small family of relatives in English. Each one comes from the same Greek magos, and most kept a link to wisdom or hidden power. Seeing them side by side makes the history easy to remember. If you like this kind of word history, the story of where anxiety comes from follows a similar road through Latin and French.
| Word | Path into English | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| magus | Latin magus | a Zoroastrian priest or a magician |
| magi | plural of magus | the wise men of the Bible story |
| mage | Middle English, from Latin magus | a magician or wise person |
| magician | Middle English magicien, from French | a person who does magic or tricks |
| magical | from magic | relating to magic, or wonderful |
How magic is used in sentences today
In modern English magic works as a noun, an adjective and, more rarely, a verb. The noun is the most common, but the adjective shows up in many fixed phrases like magic wand and magic carpet. The verb is informal and usually means to make something appear or vanish very quickly. Here are a few plain examples of each use.
- Noun: The kids loved the magic show at the party.
- Adjective: Please is the magic word in our house.
- Verb: She magicked a hot dinner out of almost nothing.
- Figurative: There was real magic between the two singers.
Common mistakes and myths about magic
A few myths about this word get repeated online, and most of them come from guessing at the sound. The facts are simpler than the stories. The word did not start in English or in Latin, and it did not start as a word for tricks. Here are the points people most often get wrong.
- Myth: magic comes from the Latin word for great. Latin magnus, great, is a different word. Magic comes from Greek magos.
- Myth: magick with a k is the original spelling. Middle English had spellings like magik and magyk, but the k form is not the root.
- Mistake: mixing up magi and magic as unrelated. They come from the same word, magos.
- Myth: the root is proven to mean power. A link to an old root meaning to be able is a proposal, not a certainty.
Other words also carry their origin quietly. The greeting namaste has a Sanskrit origin that literally means a bow to you.
Questions people ask
What is the root word of magic?
The root is Greek magos, a word for a Persian priest or sorcerer. Greek built magikos, meaning magical, from it, and that form passed into Latin and then French.
Is the word magic Persian?
Its deepest known source is Persian. Merriam-Webster traces Greek magos to an Iranian origin and links it to Old Persian magus, meaning sorcerer.
When was the word magic first used in English?
Merriam-Webster dates the first known use of magic as a noun and as an adjective to the 14th century. The verb, as in to magic something away, dates from 1906.
Are magic and the Magi related?
Yes. The Magi of the Bible were magi, the plural of magus. Magic comes from the same Greek word magos.
What did magic originally mean?
In Middle English it meant the use of supernatural powers. Before that, in Greek, magikos meant relating to the magi, the Persian priests.
Is magic related to the word mighty or machine?
No. Those come from different roots. Some scholars link magus to an old root meaning to be able, but that is a theory, not a settled fact.
Sources
We checked this page against these references. The examples were written by our editors.
See also:
Fact checked: Junaid Khan checked this page against Merriam-Webster, Cambridge and Oxford. How we check. Published , last updated .
About the author
Alishba Khan: Alishba Khan is a UX researcher with more than six years in IT. Her day job is listening to real people and writing down what they mean in plain words. At Wordhurst she writes the pages on synonyms, other ways to say things, slang, emoji and word meanings.