athame

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UK/əˈθeɪmeɪ/UK/əˈθɑːmeɪ/US/ɑˈθɑ.meɪ/US/əˈθɑ.meɪ/

noun

A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and typically having a black handle with magical symbols on it.

OriginFrench athamé ← Medieval Latin artavus →
UncommonFirst used 20th c.Scrabble 11
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Meanings

nounathame (plural athames)

plural athames · alternative athamé

  1. A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and typically having a black handle with magical symbols on it.First known use 20th c.

    Tradition says an athame should never have drawn blood.

    2023, Skye Alexander, The Kitchen Witch, Simon & Schuster (Adams Media), page 60
    3 more examples

    She is moving with a regal gait, grasping the arthame, or magic knife.

    1931, Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry, chapter 7, in JC Locke, transl., Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy

    Agia was quicker, making a cut at my neck with an athame before his weapon was free of the scabbard.

    1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 60

    The athame is a black-handled ritual knife—one of the most common distinguishing marks of the Neopagan Witch.

    1999, James R. Lewis, Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions, page 22

Origin

  1. Medieval Latinartavus“quill-sharpening knife”
  2. Frenchathamé
  3. Englishathame

From French athamé in a 1929 passage from É.-J. Grillot de Givry (see 1931 citation below), apparently from Medieval Latin artavus (“quill-sharpening knife”). Artavus was also mistranslated into artauo in an Italian manuscript. The arthame was conflated with the cortel nero (“black knife”) by Grillot de Givry, and that conflation was passed on to Gerald Gardner (whose 1954 book Witchcraft Today introduced Wicca to the public).

More words from French, Medieval Latin

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French athamé
  • athaméritual dagger
Latin artavus
  • artavusritual dagger
Spanish átame, daga
  • átameritual dagger
  • dagaritual dagger

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Tehamahamate
Cite this entry
APA

athame. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/athame

MLA

“athame.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/athame. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “athame,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/athame.

Source: athame on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.