Sabbat

I'm currently taking History of Magic and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (or something along those lines) and while writing a paper for that class, I realized how much the word "sabbat" comes up. I used to think that it was a misspelling and that they had actually meant "sabbath", until I realized that every line, paragraph, and text could not have that many misspellings.

As it turns out, I'm slightly right. Sabbat is a common misspelling of sabbath and sabot, according to Websters online dictionary (my computer even wants me to exchange it for one of the first five words it thinks the word should actually be). But, sabbat has since come to mean (on it's own accord) "a midnight meeting of witches to practice witchcraft and sorcery; in the Middle Ages it was supposed to be a demonic orgy." Well! Isn't that just grand? Of course, in neopaganism it is referred to as "one of the eight major seasonal festivals which make up the Wheel of the Year."

Sabbat itself comes from a French version of sabbath. The history of "sabbath" is actually pretty intense, and instead of trying to paraphrase it all, I've decided to show you just what it said:

"O.E. sabat "Saturday," observed by the Jews as a day of rest, from L. sabbatum, from Gk. sabbaton, from Heb. shabbath, prop. "day of rest," from shabath "he rested." The Babylonians regarded seventh days as unlucky, and avoided certain activities then; the Jewish observance may have begun as a similar custom. From the seventh day of the week, it began to be applied c.1410 to the first day (Sunday), a change completed during the Reformation."

So, there's my history of sabbat, and as it turns out, sabbath, also. The rest of you may not come across this word as much as I, but for the few people in our class that I know are in my M&WC class, hopefully this does something for you.

By the way, this site must have some of the greatest things to go along with its entries. Really.
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/sabbat
www.etymonline.com