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Sortilege vs Charm - What's the difference?

sortilege | charm |

As nouns the difference between sortilege and charm

is that sortilege is witchcraft, magic, especially as a means of making decisions or predictions while charm is an object, act or words believed to have magic power.

As a verb charm is

(seduce, entrance or fascinate)To seduce, persuade or fascinate someone or something.

sortilege

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Witchcraft, magic, especially as a means of making decisions or predictions.
  • * 1819 , (Walter Scott), Ivanhoe :
  • *:We have therefore summoned to our presence a Jewish woman, by name Rebecca, daughter of Isaac of York — a woman infamous for sortileges and for witcheries.
  • *1971 , , Religion and the Decline of Magic , Folio Society 2012, page 115:
  • *:Orthodox believers were less happy about using sortilege to coerce God into taking decisions on their behalf.
  • * 2001 , (JT Leroy), Sarah :
  • *:‘Too much evil sortilege ,’ Glad always says when someone suggests he open a franchise over Cheat Ridge.

    • Derived terms

    * sortilegious

    charm

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) charme'' (chant, magic spell), from (etyl) ''carmen (song, incantation)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An object, act or words believed to have magic power.
    • a charm against evil
    It works like a charm .
  • The ability to persuade, delight or arouse admiration; often constructed in the plural.
    • He had great personal charm .
    She tried to win him over with her charms .
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
  • * Milton
    • the charm of beauty's powerful glance
  • (physics) A quantum number of hadrons]] determined by the quantity of [[charm quark, charm quarks & antiquarks.
  • A small trinket on a bracelet or chain, etc., traditionally supposed to confer luck upon the wearer.
    • She wears a charm bracelet on her wrist.
    Synonyms
    * (something with magic power ): amulet, incantation, spell, talisman * (quality of arousing delight or admiration ): appeal, attraction, charisma * (trinket ): amulet, dangle, ornament
    Antonyms
    * (quality of arousing delight or admiration ): boredom, dryness
    See also
    * quark

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To seduce, persuade or fascinate someone or something.
  • * (John Milton)
    • They, on their mirth and dance / Intent, with jocund music charm his ear.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}
  • To use a magical charm upon; to subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • No witchcraft charm thee!
  • To protect with, or make invulnerable by, spells, charms, or supernatural influences.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • I, in my own woe charmed , / Could not find death.
  • (obsolete, rare) To make music upon.
  • * (Edmund Spenser)
    • Here we our slender pipes may safely charm .
  • To subdue or overcome by some secret power, or by that which gives pleasure; to allay; to soothe.
  • * (Alexander Pope)
    • Music the fiercest grief can charm .
    Synonyms
    * (seduce, entrance or fascinate ): delight, enchant, entrance, win one over * (use magic ): bewitch, enchant, ensorcel, enspell

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Etymology 2

    Variant of (chirm), from (etyl) chirme, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The mixed sound of many voices, especially of birds or children.
  • * 1667 , John Milton, Paradise Lost , Book IV:
    • Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, / With charm of earliest Birds
  • * Spenser
    • free liberty to chant our charms at will
  • * 1955 , William Golding, The Inheritors , Faber and Faber 2005, p. 152:
    • The laughter rose like the charm of starlings.
  • A flock, group (especially of finches).

    • Anagrams

    * English collective nouns ----