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athame (uh-THAYM, AH-thuh-mei, or uh-THAY-mee) - n., a ceremonial dagger, usually with a black handle, used in Wicca and related neopagan religions.
Rarely used to actually cut -- it's more as a guide to channel energy, especially that of the element of fire. Often double-edged. The word is first recorded in the 1930s, and spread in the 1950s through the writings of Gerald Gardner -- of certain origin, though it is sometimes connected to an arthame that appears in a medieval grimoire, Key of Solomon, a garbled version of Medieval Latin artavus, quill knife (that is, used to sharpen pens), of unknown origin.
---L.
Rarely used to actually cut -- it's more as a guide to channel energy, especially that of the element of fire. Often double-edged. The word is first recorded in the 1930s, and spread in the 1950s through the writings of Gerald Gardner -- of certain origin, though it is sometimes connected to an arthame that appears in a medieval grimoire, Key of Solomon, a garbled version of Medieval Latin artavus, quill knife (that is, used to sharpen pens), of unknown origin.
---L.
