Why do witches cast spells while children learn spelling? Because both uses of spell began with speaking and telling. They took different routes into modern English, but they belong to the same old world of spoken words. The schoolroom verb came through Anglo-French from a Germanic word meaning “to tell.” It first meant to explain or read something aloud. Later, it narrowed to naming the letters of a word in their correct order. The magical noun came from Old English 'spel', meaning a story, speech or sermon. By the 1500s, it could describe a spoken formula believed to have supernatural power. That older meaning survives in 'gospel', originally a “good story” or “good message.” So the answer is not that spelling was once witchcraft. Both meanings grew from the idea of saying words: a child names their letters, while a witch speaks words meant to have power. Which meaning did you assume came first?