Entertainment / Literature / Witchs Familiar: In the eyes of medieval and Renaissance churchmen, and in much of medieval and Renaissance literature, it was a common belief that witches kept familiars. These familiars were thought to be demonic spirits masquerading as small animals--perhaps a black cat, goat, dog, or toad. Inquisitors and churchmen held that such spirits presented themselves to witches and served them after the witches struck a bargain with diabolical powers. The three Weird Sisters in Macbeth open the play in a scene in which their familiars summon them away to work mischief.
Search Google for Witchs Familiar:
Familiar Adjective Synonyms: friendly, affable, close, intimate, sociable, social, free, free and easy, relaxed, over-friendly, overfree, overfamiliar, bold, forward, insolent, impudent, presumptuous, presuming, disrespectful, unreserved, unrestrained, informal, casual, cordial
Familiar Noun Synonyms: well-known, common, commonplace, everyday, ordinary, current
MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Witchs Familiar: In the eyes of medieval and Renaissance churchmen, and in much of medieval and Renaissance literature, it was a common belief that witches kept familiars. These familiars were thought to be demonic sp MORE
Science / Astrology / Familiarity: Any kind of aspect or reception between two planets. MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Familiar Address: Not to be confused with the animal known as a witch's familiar (see immediately below), the familiar address is the use of informal pronouns in Middle English and Early Modern English. Pronouns such a MORE