broomstick

n.
The handle of a broom.

Modern artists and fiction writers take for granted that a witch's magic flight requires a broomstick, but folk tradition mentions other means too, including pitchforks, staffs, plant-stems, hurdles, bowls, and pig-troughs. Two sources which may have helped fix the stereotype are a chapbook on the famous Lancashire witch trial of 1612, where one woodcut shows a woman, a devil, and a man, all on broomsticks; and Reginald Scot, who (quoting a French source) said that when witches dance at Sabbaths ‘everie one hath a broome in her hand, and holdeth it up aloft’.

Witches were said to ride through the air on switches or broomsticks on their nocturnal journey to the Sabbat. Various other mounts were supposed to be used by witches, including a cleft stick, a staff, a distaff, or even a shovel. These objects were smeared with a special witchcraft ointment before the flight. Other witches were believed to make their aerial journeys on such animals as a wolf or a goat. These flights were named transvection by demonologists.

Sources:

Robbins, Rossell Hope. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. New York: Crown Publishers, 1959.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: the handle of a broom
  Synonym: broom handle

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kosteskaft

Nederlands (Dutch)
bezemsteel

Français (French)
n. - manche à balai, (fig) asperge

Deutsch (German)
n. - Besenstiel, lange Latte

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - σκουπόξυλο

Italiano (Italian)
spilungone

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cabo (m) de vassoura

Русский (Russian)
ручка у метлы

Español (Spanish)
n. - fideo, perigallo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kvastskaft, borstskaft

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
帚柄

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 帚柄

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 빗자루

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ほうきの柄

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) يدة المكنسه, عصاها‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מקל המטאטא‬

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Girls Broomstick Skirt