Oddly enough, this question came to me while listening to a Spanish Audible version of Harry Potter, in which witches and wizards are referred to as magos (wizards) y brujas (witches). Spanish is a gendered language; the -o typically designates male, the -a female; therefore, there exists, in the language, a feminine mago (maga) as well as a masculine bruja (brujo). But the parallel terms are not used in the translation. Maybe the Spanish translation is just being uber-literal, from the English, but the two different words suggest different status. In the Potter books, male and female spellcasters are of equal status, despite the two different terms used to name them.But in modern parlance, the two words conjure up VERY different images.
I am aware that men have been persecuted for witchcraft ("More men than women were prosecuted for witchcraft in countries such as Normandy, Estonia, Burgundy, Russia and Iceland," according to a 2019 piece in iNews UK). Would they have been referred to as "witches," or simply "men accused of witchcraft?"
In English, most people think that the masculine for witch is "worlock," but those are two different entities, I think. There are gendered words in English for sorceror/-ess, enchanter/-tress, implying that the male and the female are of the same ilk. But "witch" and "wizard" remain stubbornly separate. So I guess, big, broad question here:
In history and some anthropological contexts, witch and wizard were different kinds of magical practitioners rather than different genders. Old English also had "ƿicca" (witch-ah) for a male witch and "ƿicce" (witch-eh) for a female witch.
Through European history, witches were often understood to derive their power from dealings with earthly spirits, like devils, fairies, or later versions of the few pagan gods surviving in folk memory. Their use of magic was also morally complicated. They cursed their enemies and blighted crops, but some accounts explain this being done to level the playing field with oppressive rulers and landlords (see the confessions of Isobel Gowdie, or the legendary account of Aradia).
"Wizard" and "sorceror" were not quite as specific. Though they overlap with witchcraft in use of magic, their sources of power were less feared by the general populace, and their uses were not usually as antagonistic.
As magic fell out of vogue, terms once distinct unto themselves began to blur together or take new meanings.
r/linguistics might have some good input on this. Crosspost this over there.