pentacle
A flat talisman, almost always star-shaped, made of parchment, sheet metal, or other substance, marked with a magic symbol or symbols, used in magical evocation.
Noun
- A flat talisman, almost always star-shaped, made of parchment, sheet metal, or other substance, marked with a magic symbol or symbols, used in magical evocation.
- ouer this pott and the cyrcle hold the pentacles, and perfume them; and say deuoutly theis psalmes followynge - mid- to late-16th century, British Library Additional manuscript 36674, London:
- of the same pentacles be certayne exorcizmes and names ineffable and carecters and signes of all the science, therefore, in them the whole science of all this art lyeth hydd - 1572, The Clavicle of Solomon, revealed by...
- if ye constraine any spirit to come before you and when ye haue shewed him ye secret pentacles, there is none dare say against your minde - 1572, The Clavicle of Solomon, revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian [British Library...
- A pentagram, especially one that is used for magical or mystical purposes.
- he drew a pentacle or five-pointed star. - 1949, Gerald Gardner, chapter 10, in High Magic's Aid, page 92:
- a five-pointed star (pentacle). - 1954, Gerald Gardner, chapter 12, in Witchcraft Today:
- the figure of the pentacle, or pentagram. - 1959, Gerald Gardner, chapter 8, in The Meaning of Witchcraft, page 122:
- A circumscribed pentagram.
- The pentacle—a pentagram enclosed within a surrounding circle—as found as the centre-piece on a witch's altar is often worn as a silver pendant by witches and other neo-pagans alike repesenting their beliefs in the...
- A pentacle is a pentagram with a circle drawn around it. - 2006, Denise Zimmermann with Gleason, Katherine and Liguana, Maria, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft, Indianapolis: Alpha, →ISBN, →LCCN,...
- The pentagram becomes a pentacle when it is enclosed within a circle and inscribed on a disc or stone. - 2007 March 1, Ruth Barr, chapter 5, in Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creation, 2nd edition,...
Origin
PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle French pentacle, from Old French pentacol (“pendant”), from pent (“hangs”), a (“from”), and col (“neck”), thus "hangs from neck". Likely reanalyzed in medieval times as coming from penta- (“five”) and -culum (object forming suffix), as evidenced by the Latinized form pentaculum and the narrowing of the modern sense to a five-pointed design, especially a pentagram.