The Number Thirteen Was Invented in 1921
A coven is a group of witches. The famous rule that a coven has thirteen members comes from a single twentieth-century book.
A coven is a gathering of witches. The detail everyone knows — that a coven numbers thirteen — is not medieval folklore but a modern claim: the anthropologist Margaret Murray put it forward in 1921, and historians have since found no support for it in the trial records. It spread because it was repeated, not because it was true. The word is a variant of *covent*, an old form of *convent*, so a coven and a convent are the same word.
- A group of witches. *A coven of thirteen.*
- Any secretive group. *A coven of insiders.*
- Covent — the older form. *Covent Garden.*
- Convent — the same word. *A convent school.*
- Latin — *convenire*, to come together. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | coven | One coven. |
| Plural | covens | Several covens. |
| Older form | covent | Covent Garden. |
| Related | convent | A convent. |
| Latin | convenire | To assemble. |
- The novel opens with a coven meeting.Fiction.
- Covent Garden preserves the older spelling.Place name.
- The thirteen-member rule dates from 1921.History.
Witchcraft words and their real ages
- Coven — first recorded in Scots in 1662, in a trial record
- Thirteen members — proposed by Margaret Murray in 1921
- Wicca — a modern religion founded in the 1950s
- Sabbat — a gathering, from the same root as Sabbath
- Familiar — an animal helper, a genuine feature of early modern trials
A variant of *covent*, an early form of *convent*, from Old French, from Latin *conventus*, an assembly. Recorded in the witchcraft sense from 1662.
Does a coven have to have thirteen members?
No. The number comes from a 1921 book and has no basis in earlier records.
Are coven and convent the same word?
Yes. Both descend from Latin conventus, an assembly, by slightly different routes.