warlock
A male magic-user; a male equivalent of a witch; a wizard.
Noun
- A male magic-user; a male equivalent of a witch; a wizard.
- He was himself a warlock, or wizard, which they knew by his taking the witch's part. - 1730, Edward Burt, Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland:
- It was the day of warlocks and apparitions, now happily driven out by the zeal of the General Assembly. - 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
- A magic-user (regardless of gender).
- “Is it because she was a warlock?” she asked. “I know different kinds of magic . . .” “No, that's not it, or at least . . .” Mereth paused, collecting her thoughts, then explained, “The warlockry doesn't help, Lady...
- It seemed like a strange thing for her to risk on a student she barely knew—but then, she was a warlock. Simon had no idea what they were capable of, but he was getting better at imagining. - 2015 March 17, Cassandra...
- Usually she blended in with the rest of the Academy faculty, making it easy to forget she was a warlock (at least, if you overlooked the blue skin). But he'd noticed that whenever another Downworlder was on campus,...
Origin
From Middle English warloghe, warlowe, warloȝe, from Old English wǣrloga (“traitor, deceiver”, literally “truce-breaker”), from Proto-West Germanic *wārulogō (“liar”), equivalent to Old English wǣr (“covenant, truce, pact, promise”) (from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁- (“true”); whence also Latin vērus) + loga (“liar”), from Proto-Germanic *lugô, related to Old English lēogan (whence English lie). The hard -ck ending originated in Scottish and Northern English, like the sense "male magic-user" (from the notion that such men were in league with the Devil and had thus broken their baptismal vows / betrayed Christianity). Cognate with Old Saxon wārlogo (“liar, unfaithful or insidious one”). A few writers alternatively propose a derivation from Old Norse varðlokkur (“incantations, charms”, literally “ward songs”), but as the OED notes, this is implausible due to the extreme rarity of the Norse...