I think using warlock as the male term for witch (traditionally, there is no male term for witch, the term is non-gendered) comes from 19th century American literature and was made popular by the TV series Bewitched and its derivation, the film I Married A Witch.The furor I saw was more to do with the idea that she was using "witches" as a term. In some Traditional Christian theology, witches are those who make a deal with the devil for power and become his "daughters."
In a similar vein (this is a D&D site!) they also had Warlocks, which did the same thing, but were basically male witches.
This was the furor of those Christians then, that these books were promoting witches as good things, when obviously, in their minds, from the past, witches were obviously wholly evil. Trying to portray evil as good was a crime in their minds.
This idea of bargaining with a outsider power to gain power for oneself actually can be seen as a basis for the Warlock class in D&D today!
Who could imagine what those during the Satanic Panic of the 80s would have thought if our current Warlock Class (they had a Witch in AD&D, but it was more of a hidden feature than a core class) was front and center back then!
Warlock actually means something like oathbreaker so the D&D term is ironically the opposite of what it means.
Of course in the WW, witch is used as the female word for wizard, which isn’t right either, but never mind.







