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Grimm has a giant article on the lemma.
Basically, it is the German term for blessing, but it took a life of its own to such an extent in the early modern period that it can now be considered a special topic of German folklore studies. The term in this sense covers the field of meanings spanned by English "blessing, benediction; charm, spell, incantation". --dab (đł) 14:25, 30 April 2013 (UTC)