Mage / Magus

[Stargzer]

This is another pair of words one encounters in Sword and Sorcery and other Fantasy novels. Would that I could wave a magic wand and cure the world's ills.

Suggested Usage: "Jasper Maskelyne was no mere magician: he was a magus magnus, a mage of the first water."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

mage

PRONUNCIATION: māj

NOUN: A magician or sorcerer.

ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English mages, magicians, variant of magi. See magus.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

magus

SYLLABICATION: ma·gus

PRONUNCIATION: māg's

NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. ma·gi ( mā'jī')
1. A member of the Zoroastrian priestly caste of the Medes and Persians. 2. Magus In the New Testament, one of the wise men from the East, traditionally held to be three, who traveled to Bethlehem to pay homage to the infant Jesus. 3. A sorcerer; a magician.

ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English magi, magi, from Latin magī, pl. of magus, sorcerer, magus, from Greek magos, from Old Persian maguš. See magh- in Appendix I.

OTHER FORMS: magi·an (mā'jē-n) —ADJECTIVE

[Slava]

Not limited to it, but a good word for the Christmas list.

Caspar, Balthazar, and ....? I always forget one.

[AikidoLizard]

Melchior. Or Melichior, according to the omniscient Wikipedia.

[Slava]

Thank you.

[LukeJavan8]

NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. ma·gi ( mā'jī')
1. A member of the Zoroastrian priestly caste of the Medes and Persians. 2. Magus In the New Testament, one of the wise men from the East, traditionally held to be three, who traveled to Bethlehem to pay homage to the infant Jesus. 3. A sorcerer; a magician.


And often listed as high as eight. The Scripture does not
say how many there were, only that there were three
gifts, giving rise to the Three wise men.