Hitteverwensing

Hitteverwensing is a Dutch term used to describe the belief that heat or hot weather can be caused by, or interpreted as, a curse or curse-like intervention by supernatural agents. The word combines hitte, meaning heat, with verwensing, meaning curse, and the expression is not a formal scientific concept but a label found in folklore, ethnographic writings, and historical linguistics.

Etymologically, the term reflects a worldview in which extreme warmth, drought, or heat-related illnesses are not merely natural phenomena but signals of moral or magical influence. In historical contexts, communities facing severe heat or crop failures sometimes attributed these hardships to witchcraft, divine punishment, or other malevolent forces, using the idea of hitteverwensing to explain misfortune and to mobilize social responses.

Culturally, references to heat as a sign of enchantment appear in folk sayings, stories, and regional practices. The concept has been studied by folklorists and historians as part of broader patterns of weather-related belief and the attribution of natural events to supernatural causes. In contemporary discourse, the term is primarily encountered in scholarly works or as a metaphor in literary and journalistic contexts rather than as a living belief.

Related topics include weather-related superstition, imprecation or curse in folk belief, and the broader cross-cultural phenomenon of attributing natural extremes to supernatural forces. Hitteverwensing illustrates how communities historically sought explanations and social meaning in the experience of extreme heat.