“A witch's familiar — the black cat, the toad, the raven — takes its name from the Latin for 'household servant,' because the demon that served the witch was part of the household.”
Familiaris is Latin for 'of the household,' from familia (household, servants). A familiaris was a household member — a servant, a close friend, someone who belonged to the domestic circle. The word entered English in the fourteenth century with this ordinary meaning: familiar meant 'closely acquainted' or 'intimate.' The supernatural meaning came later, when English witch-trial records adopted 'familiar spirit' for the demon or imp that served a witch.
The concept of a witch's familiar was prominent in English and Scottish witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General who operated in East Anglia in the 1640s, was obsessed with familiars. He recorded their names — Vinegar Tom, Pyewacket, Holt — and claimed they took the forms of cats, dogs, toads, mice, and insects. A woman with a cat was suspect. A woman with a toad was condemned.
The witch-trial familiar was a specifically English and Scottish phenomenon. Continental European witch trials focused on the sabbat and the pact with the Devil. English trials focused on the familiar — the domestic demon that did the witch's bidding. The distinction is telling: English witchcraft accusations were about power in the household, not about theology. The familiar was a servant. The witch was a master. The anxiety was about who had power over whom.
Modern usage has softened completely. A familiar is a stock character in fantasy fiction — the wizard's owl, the witch's cat. Harry Potter's Hedwig, Sabrina's Salem. The word has become cozy, domestic, exactly what the Latin original meant. The witch trial's terrified accusation has become a children's story. The household demon is a household pet.
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In fantasy fiction, a familiar is a magical companion — an animal bonded to a witch or wizard. The concept appears in Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Dungeons & Dragons, and hundreds of other works. The witch-trial terror has been thoroughly domesticated. A familiar is now cute.
The Latin word for a household member became an English word for a household demon became a fantasy word for a household pet. The trajectory is from the mundane through the terrifying back to the mundane. The cat on the witch's lap started as a servant, became evidence of a capital crime, and ended up in a children's book. The household kept its member.
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