Warlock

What it is

A warlock is a man believed to work witchcraft or sorcery. The word belongs chiefly to Scotland, where in the early modern period it served as the male counterpart of the witch. 'Witch' itself can describe a person of either sex, but usage over the centuries has leaned heavily towards women, so a separate word for men found a use. The name was never neutral. In its Scottish setting it implied a man who had bargained with the devil, and men accused under it could face trial and execution. Even a respected scholar might attract the label. From Scotland the word travelled into Romantic-era writing and then into twentieth-century popular culture, where most people now meet it.

Where it comes from

The oldest root is the Old English wǣrloga, a word for someone who betrays a sworn promise or tricks others. Around the year 1000 it had narrowed until it served as a name for the devil himself. In Scotland the word later widened to cover men accused of witchcraft. One explanation for that shift is the belief that male witches had bargained with Auld Hornie, as the devil was called there, and so had turned against the Christian faith and broken the promises made at their baptism. A few writers have looked instead to Old Norse varð-lokkur, said to mean one who calls up spirits, but the Oxford English Dictionary finds that story hard to credit. In time the word left the courtroom for Romantic-era literature, and through it reached twentieth-century popular culture.

Who does it

The name marked out men. Most people who died in Scotland's early modern witch trials were women, but a smaller number of men were condemned and executed as warlocks. The label could reach surprisingly far up the social scale. John Napier, the Scottish mathematician who lived from 1550 to 1617, was widely taken to be a warlock, even a magician, because he studied divination and the occult. His standing among the establishment of the time, the record suggests, is probably what kept him out of court.

What people believe

Behind the word stands a picture of the devil as a being men might bargain with. By about 1000 AD warlock already served as a title for the devil, and that older sense coloured the Scottish one. There, a man called a warlock was understood to have entered a pact with Auld Hornie, the devil of Scots speech. Such a bargain counted as betrayal twice over: it turned against the Christian faith and it broke the vows or promises sworn at baptism. A word that once meant a promise-breaker thus fitted a man said to have broken his highest promise of all.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Language scholars have weighed the word's past closely. The Oxford English Dictionary backs the Old English line and rejects the proposed Norse one, varð-lokkur, on two grounds: the Norse phrase survives so rarely, and spellings lacking the hard -k, which suit the Old English account, appear earlier in the record than spellings that carry it. Historians of the trials add a demographic picture: in early modern Scotland, women formed the great majority of the dead, with executed men a small minority. Napier's case shows how the name could rest on reputation alone, and how social rank could shield a suspect from formal charges.

Compare and confuse

The warlock sits beside several neighbouring words. 'Witch' names a practitioner of either sex, though it has mostly been given to women over time, and in Scotland the two terms worked as a pair. 'Magician' was among the words applied to Napier, and sorcery names the craft the term points to. What sets warlock apart is its own history: a promise-breaker's word, tied in Scotland to the idea of a pact with the devil.

Law and persecution

The witch trials of early modern Scotland were where the word did its hardest work. Prosecution could end in death: women made up most of the victims, but men too were put to death under the warlock name. Reputation alone could place a person under suspicion, as Napier's case shows. His interest in divination and occult studies was enough for others to see a warlock in him, yet his establishment position probably kept the courts at a distance.

Questions people ask about Warlock

Good reading and sources

• Warlock on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data