Coven

Coven or covan was originally a late medieval Scots word (c1500) meaning a gathering of any kind according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It derives from the Latin root word convenire meaning to come together or to gather, which also gave rise to the English word convene. The first recorded use of it being applied to witches comes from a much later date from 1662 in the witchtrial of Isabel Gowdie which describes a coven of 13 members. Margaret Murray used this evidence to claim that all witches across Europe met in groups of thirteen which they called covens. She went on to manipulate the figures in other trials to come to a similar total, though even then she could only come up with eighteen total out of the hundreds of recorded trials. She also provided no evidence the word itself was used outside Scotland at the time of the witchhunts, nor why her ancient prehistoric religion were using a word which of recent date derived from Latin. After Murray popularised the word in the 1920s Gerald Gardner adopted it in his works on Wicca hence its modern use in that religion.

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Scots: Scots may refer to:...

Oxford English Dictionary: The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a comprehensive dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). Generally regarded as the definitive dictionary of the English language, it includes about 290,500 main entries comprising 350 million printed characters. In addition to the headwords o...

Margaret Murray: Margaret Alice Murray (1863-1963) was an early British twentieth century Egyptologist of considerable international reputation. Her contributions to Egyptology and promoting the study of folklore have stood the test of time, but she is now best known for her theories of a pan-European, Pre-Christian...