View source for Warlock

{{Short description|Male sorcerer}}
{{other uses}}{{Lead too short|date=May 2024}}{{wikt | warlock}}
[[File:Mefistofele warlock.jpg|thumb|Costume design for a warlock for the opera ''[[Mefistofele]]'' ([[Alfredo Leonardo Edel]], 1881)]][[File:Warlocks and Witches in a dance. John Faed RSA. 1855.jpg|thumb|''Warlocks and Witches in a dance'' ([[John Faed]], 1855)]]
A '''warlock'''  is a male practitioner of [[witchcraft]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/warlock |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120724004840/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/warlock|url-status= dead|archive-date= July 24, 2012|title= Definition of warlock|website= English Oxford Living Dictionaries |publisher= Oxford University Press |access-date=29 December 2018}}</ref>

==Etymology and terminology==
The most commonly accepted etymology derives ''[[wiktionary:warlock|warlock]]'' from the [[Old English]] ''[[wiktionary:wærloga|wǣrloga]]'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver".<ref name="OED89"/> The term came to apply specially  to the [[devil]] around 1000 AD.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Harper |first1=Douglas |title=warlock |url= https://www.etymonline.com/word/warlock |website= Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date= 11 August 2020}}</ref> In early modern [[Scots language |Scots]], the word came to refer to the male equivalent of a [[witch (word)| "witch"]] (which can be male or female, but has historically been used predominantly for females).<ref>{{Cite book |last=McNeill |first=F. Marian |title= The Silver Bough: A Four Volume Study of the National and Local Festivals of Scotland |location=Glasgow |publisher= William Maclellan |year= 1957 |volume= 1}}</ref>{{page needed|date= September 2023}} The term may have become associated in Scotland with male witches owing to the idea that they had made pacts with Auld Hornie (the devil) and thus had betrayed the Christian faith and broke their baptismal vows or oaths.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Howard |first1= Michael |title= Scottish Witches and Warlocks |date= 2013 |publisher= Three Hands Press |page= 91 |edition= 1st |language= en |chapter= 7 |quote= It is possible that it became associated with wizards and male witches in Scotland in the sense that someone who made a pact with Auld Hornie had betrayed the Christian faith and broken their baptismal vows. In that respect they were considered to be an 'oath breaker', a traitor and an enemy of the Church.}}</ref> From this use, the word passed into [[Romanticism |Romantic]] literature and ultimately into 20th-century popular culture. A derivation from the [[Old Norse]] ''varð-lokkur'', "caller of spirits", has also been suggested,<ref>{{Cite book |last1= Cleasby |first1= R. |last2= Vigfusson |first2= G. |title= An Icelandic-English Dictionary |location= London |publisher= Macmillan |date= 1874}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last= Olsen |first= M. |title= Maal Og Minne |publisher= Bymalslaget |location= Oslo |year= 1916}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1= Loewe |first1= M. |last2= Blacker |first2= C. |title= Oracles and Divination |page= 130 |quote= 'Vardlokkur' […] is related to the Scots dialect word 'warlock', wizard, and the meaning is thought to relate to the power to shut in or enclose" |location=London |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |year= 1981}}</ref> but the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary ]]'' considers this implausible owing to the extreme rarity of the Norse word and because forms without hard ''-k'', which are consistent with the Old English etymology ("traitor"), are attested earlier than forms with a ''-k''.<ref name="OED89">{{Cite book|title=Oxford English Dictionary |edition= 2nd |year= 1989 |section=Warlock |publisher= Oxford University Press|quote=ON. varðlokkur wk. fem. pl. ... incantation, suggested already in Johnson, is too rare (? occurring once), with regard to the late appearance of the -k forms, to be considered.}}</ref> 

==History==
Although most victims of the [[witch trials in early modern Scotland]] were women, some men were executed as warlocks.<ref>Thomas Thomson, ''A History of the Scottish People from the Earliest Times'' (1896), page 286: "Where one man suffered as a warlock, ten women at least were executed as witches."</ref><ref>Robert Chambers, ''Domestic Annals of Scotland: From the Reformation to the Revolution'' (1874), page 244</ref><ref>''Journal of Jurisprudence and Scottish Law Magazine'' (1891), ''Execution of the Judgment of Death'', page 397: "We read (Law's ''Memor.'' Pref. lix.) that 'one John Brugh, a notorious warlock (wizard) in the parochin of [[Crook of Devon| Fossoquhy]], by the space of thirty-six years, was worried at a stake and burned, 1643.'"</ref>

In his day, the Scottish mathematician [[John Napier]] (1550–1617) was often perceived as a warlock or magician because of his interests in divination and the occult, though his establishment position likely kept him from being prosecuted.<ref>Roger A. Mason, ''Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603'' (2006, {{ISBN|0521026202}}), page 199</ref><ref>Julian Havil, ''John Napier: Life, Logarithms, and Legacy'' (2014, {{ISBN|1400852188}}), page 19</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Witchcraft}}

[[Category:Supernatural legends]]
[[Category:European witchcraft]]
[[Category:Rebels]]
[[Category:Witches]]