the.com/crone
the witch who survived long enough to stop being polite about it
means An old woman, often imagined as withered or ugly, and frequently used as an insult — though increasingly reclaimed as the wise elder phase of a woman's life.
from From Middle English, borrowed via Anglo-French from Old North French 'caroigne' — literally 'carrion,' a dead and rotting carcass. The word for a worn-out animal fit only for the knacker became, by ugly extension, a word for a worn-out old woman. So 'crone' carries a buried insult: she was once compared to a piece of dead meat. Possibly distantly related to the same root that gives us 'carrion' and 'carnage.'
- wise origin
- Once an honorary title for a village's eldest expert
- triple goddess
- The final phase after maiden and mother
- carrion root
- Likely from Old French for old ewe, carcass
- reclaimed slur
- Modern witches wear it as a badge
the weird sisters — three witches in macbeth who prophesy to the titular character, appearing throughout shakespeare's 1606 tragedy
the three fates — clotho, lachesis, and atropos in greek mythology who spin, measure, and cut the thread of life for all mortals
baba yaga — supernatural crone figure from russian folklore who lives in a hut on chicken legs and guards magical secrets