moloin.
/məˈlɔɪ/, U.S. /məˈlɔɪ/, South African English /məˈlɔɪ/, /mɒˈlɔɪ/ South African.
In southern Africa (in Sotho and Tswana society): a practitioner of magic; a wizard, a witch.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > non-European magic (miscellaneous) > [noun] > sorcerer or medicine man
fetisheer1613
witch doctor1718
gris-gris man1788
medicine man1801
wizard1845
inyanga1862
moloi1871
goofer1887
trick-doctor1889
1871 J. Mackenzie Ten Years North of Orange River xix. 388 There is a certain amount of suspicion connected with the word ‘ngaka’ (doctor, sorcerer); but when the super-human power is..for an evil purpose,..the man is called a ‘moloi’ (wizard).
1887 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 16 84 Some moloi were found in 1885 trying to bewitch the boundary line between the Bakwena and the Bamangwato.
1905 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 35 377 If two persons have been accused to be valoi..and it cannot be decided in the ordinary way who the moloi is, they are given a special strong poisonous drink.
1960 C. Hooper Brief Authority 251 Pamphlets appeared in the village... They..alleged that..the shopkeeper was a moloi, a wizard.
1995 Weekly Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) (Electronic ed.) 14 July The term witch (or moloi) is applied to those people who, ‘through sheer malignancy, either consciously or subconsciously, employ magical means to encompass all manner of evil to the detriment of their fellow creatures’.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1871