Names for Wizards based on Magical College

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by Proteus

As long as they don’t get mistaken for a necrophage.

More seriously, magi is the plural form of magus

So, necromagus for singular and necromagi for plural?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Necromagy is an interesting word. Would someone who practiced necromagy be a necromage then? Or would they more properly be a necromagi?

"Necromage" is better. "Necromagi" would be (a) plural, (b) Latin, and (c) unattested. But "necromage" means "dead magician".

In Greek a magician is a μάγος ("magos"), dual μᾰ́γω ("magō", but English doesn't actually have dual number, so it would be an error to use it), plural μᾰ́γοι ("magoi").

The Latin version of that is magus (plural magī), but I don't understand the charm of putting Greek words into Latin form to use them in English sentences. I think it is usually better to transliterate directly from Greek to English and best to use the English forms and inflections.

There is a perfectly good English word that is derived from and equivalent to Greek μάγος: "mage". The art of a mage is either "-magy" (from Greek μαγεία) or "magery" (by a regular English inflection).

Meanwhile a μάντις ("mantis") is a fortune-teller or diviner, and μαντεία ("manteia") is fortune-telling. That's what gives us the compounds in "-mancer" and "-mancy".

An -ουργός (-ourgos) is a -wright or -maker, a craftsman who makes the type of thing specified in the first element of the compound as a wheelwright makes wheels, a shipwright makes ships, and a playwright writes plays. An -urgy is the work of the corresponding kind of craftsman, i.e. xylurgy is woodwork, hamaxurgy is coachbuilding. The word for "work" is ἔργον ("ergon"), not "*ourgeia".

The only actual Greek word in -ουργός that I know of that has anything to do with magic is ταχυδακτυλουργός (quick-finger worker), which is modern and means "prestidigitator, sleight-of-hand artist"). "Thaumaturge" and "thaumaturgy" are English words, not Greek (though they are compounded from Greek roots). They were coined as fancified versions of "wonder-worker" and "wonder-working", and inasmuch as either of their roots has anything to do with magic its in the "thaum-" bit (from Greek θαῦμα, meaning "marvel, astonishing thing"), not the "-ourgos" bit.

[Proteus]

Never date a fortune-teller; she'll just end up biting your head off....