# origin of the phrase "witch hunt" ?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-phrase-witch-hunt/319671
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 2, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-phrase-witch-hunt/319671 "2005-09-02T01:39:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-phrase-witch-hunt/319671/1 "2005-09-02T01:39:34Z")
Is the term “witch hunt” derived from the activities of the salem witch trials? It seems obvious, but I can’t find any cites purporting to prove this (or even back up this claim).
Can anyone help me out with a cite? Need it for a school paper.
Bad Google-fu today, I guess. Getting lots of hits about the witch trials themselves, (and LOTS of stuff about McCarthy) but I’m looking for the origin of the word(s).
Many humble thanks in advance for any help.
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-phrase-witch-hunt/319671/2 "2005-09-02T01:47:33Z")
Not necessarily the Salem witch hunts, but witch hunts in general. They happened all over the world from the Middle Ages up until the 1700s
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-phrase-witch-hunt/319671/3 "2005-09-02T01:50:54Z")
From [answers.com](http://www.answers.com/topic/witch-hunt)
> [@](#):
>
> A witchhunt in modern terminology refers to the act of seeking and persecuting any perceived enemy, particularly when the search is conducted using extreme measures and with little regard to actual guilt or innocence.
>
> The first recorded use of the term in this metaphorical sense (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) occurs in George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia (1938). The term is used by Orwell to describe how, in the Spanish Civil War, political persecutions became a regular occurrence.
>
> The term gained further currency in the 1950s with Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. This was ostensibly about the Salem witch trials but was intended to criticize the hearings of United States Senator Joseph McCarthy as well as the general atmosphere of paranoia and persecution that accompanied them. Other anti-communist hearings in the 1950s were under the aegis of the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC. Although revelations of the Soviet archives in the 1990s showed that some of those who were pursued were indeed communists (HUAC uncovered some genuine Communist infiltrators), the practice of McCarthyism left many innocent victims in its wake. Thus the “witch hunts” of the time were compromised by wild accusations and disregard for civil liberties and civil discourse.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-phrase-witch-hunt/319671/4 "2005-09-02T01:58:40Z")
The OED has a cite from 1885, in _King Solomon’s Mines_ used in the sense of an actual hunt for witches. This is the earliest cite(so far) in print.
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### Author:  [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-phrase-witch-hunt/319671/5 "2005-09-02T02:08:40Z")
This is great stuff. Thank you to everyone who posted.
Lissa, for pointing out it may pre-date Salem [MPython] "What else floats in water? [/MPython]
Exapno Mapcase, thanks for the [answers.com](http://answers.com) ref Didn’t even think of that.
SamClem, for the King Solomon’s Mines reference.