witch-huntern.
/ˈwɪtʃˌhʌntə/, U.S. /ˈwɪtʃˌ(h)ən(t)ər/ 1. A person who searches for evidence against people suspected or accused of witchcraft; a person employed to identify suspected witches.Chiefly with reference to the 16th or 17th centuries (cf. witchfinder n. 1) or referring to places where belief in witchcraft is still current. In southern Africa witch-hunter is sometimes used to refer specifically to a healer or diviner employed to identify the source of a bewitchment (cf. witchfinder n. 2).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > sorcerer or magician > witch > [noun] > witch-hunt > action of > one who
witch-hunter1618
witchfinder1646
1618 T. Taylor Christs Combate & Conquest 71 Saul, when God was gone from him, tooke great paines to goe to the witch; yet hee went in the night; but our witch-hunters runne in the day.
1867 J. Harland & T. T. Wilkinson Lancs. Folk-lore i. 184 Dr. John Webster (who detected Robinson, the Lancashire witch-hunter).
1990 S. Jamba Patriots (1992) xxii. 199 So they consulted a witch hunter, Mariano. I tell you, he was a man and a half. He would simply look at a woman, say she was a witch and she would admit it.
2008 R. Stefoff Witches & Witchcraft ii. 43 One of the most notorious witch-hunters, Matthew Hopkins of seventeenth-century England.
2016 Zimbabwe Standard (Nexis) 31 Jan. The witch-hunters had left a trail of destruction in their wake as brother turned against brother, mother against daughter and father against son in Masvingo.
2. depreciative. A person who conducts a campaign of persecution against a person or group considered to be undesirable by virtue of their views or activities; a person who participates in a witch hunt (witch hunt n. 2).
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the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > hostile action or attack > [noun] > persecution > one who
warrer?c1225
warrayinga1300
pursuera1382
warriora1400
persecutorc1450
persecuter1526
prosecutor1542
dragooner1688
worrier1712
heresy-hunter1765
witch-hunter1917
1917 Scotsman 9 Nov. 5/2 Major Rowland Hunt, one of the most ingenuous of the witch hunters who suspect the presence of the hidden hand in the strangest quarters, brought upon himself a severe rebuke from Lord R. Cecil to-day.
1940 H. L. Ickes Diary 22 Feb. in Secret Diary (1954) III. 139 Probably the witch-hunters are largely responsible for this. No one likes to be called a Communist and yet that is what every liberal has to submit to.
1960 Encounter Mar. 78/2 It is..necessary to that public to learn that its witch-hunters are corrupt.
1990 Rolling Stone 12 July 8/3 To continue to paint the many mainstream groups concerned about explicit lyrics as record-burning, blacklisting witch hunters is to willfully deceive your readers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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