[General] difference of "wizard, magician, warlock, sorcerer"

[caronmi]

Dear teachers,
I often come across these words indicating a person with magical power when I read English novels, see English movies or playing Wow. But I find it really hard to distinguish them.
I kinda feel a "wizard" is someone with the power of light and fire; a "magician" is a person who plays card tricks or "rabbit in a hat" tricks in front of the audience; a "warlock" is someone manipulates dark power; and a "sorcerer" is a person who can make magical potion.;-)
Is my interpretation right? Thank you in advance!

 

[BobK]

Use a dictionary. Usages differ widely, and games like WoW may have their own definitions. Other communities impose other definitions. Readers of Haryy Potter, for example, will have very precise definitions that are at odds with those of WoW. Phrases such as 'the power of light and fire' sound to me as though they come from something like WoW (which, for the many who won't know, is an online role-playing game called World of Warcraft).

Generally, a 'magician' is the same as a conjuror: that is a word that has a real-world use - there are people who earn their living as magicians: the word is on their passports; they are entertainers of a particular kind. The other words all mean whatever they mean to whoever uses them, in the contexts where they are used: for example, a Druid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia may have particular meanings for some of these other terms that are meaningful only to other druids.

b

 

[caronmi]

Thank you! I really appreciate your help. Native speakers' opinion really means a lot to me. I will look them up in a dictionary more carefully.

 

[SoothingDave]

there are people who earn their living as magicians: the word is on their passports​

What does this mean? You have your profession listed on the passport issued from the UK government?

 

[BobK]

What does this mean? You have your profession listed on the passport issued from the UK government?

Profession or occupation - I'm not sure which. (And although it's 'issued by the UK government' , it's just another EU passport :-( ;-) )

b

 

[SoothingDave]

Profession or occupation - I'm not sure which. (And although it's 'issued by the UK government' , it's just another EU passport :-( ;-) )

b

Does that mean if you go from engineering into management you have to get your passport amended? That seems awfully unnecessary to me.

 

[bhaisahab]

My current passport, issued in 2007, doesn't show my occupation. I'm pretty sure the previous one didn't either but I think that at one time it might have done. Both my last two passports were issued by British Embassies in other countries, but I don't think that makes any difference.

 

[5jj]

Does that mean if you go from engineering into management you have to get your passport amended? That seems awfully unnecessary to me.

No, you don't. And, as far as I know, nobody checks up that what you have declared as your profession is accurate - though if you put something that was obviously untrue, such as 'Archbishop of Canterbury' or 'Presidenet of the USA', it would probably not be accepted.

 

[5jj]

My current passport, issued in 2007, doesn't show my occupation. I

Well I never! Mine doesn't, either. I hadn't noticed that they'd dropped that.

 

[BobK]

It's not policed; and maybe the EU passport doesn't do it any more. But my old blue UK one called me a 'writer'. A previous one called me a 'student' - which was true for only about a fifth of the time the passport was valid!

b

 

[SoothingDave]

Well I never! Mine doesn't, either. I hadn't noticed that they'd dropped that.

Like meat by the pound, it must have been "harmonized" out of existence.

 

[5jj]

Like meat by the pound, it must have been "harmonized" out of existence.

Yup. Give them an inch and they'll take a kilometre.

 

[caronmi]

Wow, another topic concerns me has arisen. I am going to have a passport but I've just quit my job.:lol: