Other forms: necromancers
A necromancer is somebody who works magic through the dead — raising them, or questioning them for knowledge of the future. It belongs to fantasy fiction, games and older folklore, and it is always a sinister figure.
The word is worth taking apart because both halves are useful elsewhere: necro- means death and turns up in necropolis and necrosis, and -mancer means one who divines, and gives pyromancer, geomancer and the general noun for the practice, divination. The art is necromancy. Note that in modern fantasy a necromancer usually raises armies of the dead, which is a wider job than the original one of merely asking them questions.
1nounnecromancerSomebody who works magic involving the dead.
“The necromancer raises an army from the old battlefield.”
necromancer is a kind of magician.
Greek nekros, a corpse, plus manteia, divination — so a necromancer was originally a fortune-teller who consulted the dead rather than a magician who commanded them. Medieval Latin confused the first half with niger, black, which is where the phrase black magic comes from.
Ancient Greek
νεκρομαντεία
Latin
necromantia
Medieval Latin
nigromantia
Old French
nigromancie
Middle English
nigromancye
English
necromancy
English, today
necromancer
Built from
An alteration of nigromancer after necromancy, equivalent to necromancy + er. necromancy Circa 1300, from Middle English nigromancye, from Old French nigromancie, from Medieval Latin nigromantia, from Latin necromantia, from Ancient Greek νεκρομαντεία, νεκρός (“dead”) + μαντεία (“divination”). Medieval Latin spelling, incorporating niger (“black”), influenced by the notion of black art. Modern spelling adopted in mid-1500s. by surface analysis, necro- + -mancy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA