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werewolf love

werewolf

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person believed to have been transformed into a wolf or to be capable of assuming the form of a wolf.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun etc. See werwolf, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A person transformed into a wolf in form and appetite, either temporarily or permanently, whether by supernatural influences, by witchcraft, or voluntarily; a lycanthrope. Belief in werewolves, formerly general, is not now extinct.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mythology A person who is transformed or can transform into a wolf or a wolflike human, often said to transform during a full moon.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a monster able to change appearance from human to wolf and back again

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English werewulf : wer, man; see wī-ro- in Indo-European roots + wulf, wolf; see wolf.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Late Old English werewulf, from wer ("man") + wulf ("wolf"). Other theories have been suggested; see Werewolf: Etymology. Cognate to garou in French loup-garou ("werewolf"), from Old French warous, from Frankish wari wulf.

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Examples

Comments

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  • skipvia commented on the word werewolf

    Some Bavarian peasants having caught a wolf one evening, tied it to a post by the tail and went to bed. The next morning nothing was there! Greatly perplexed, they consulted the local priest, who told them that their captive was undoubtedly a werewolf and had resumed its human form during the night. "The next time that you take a wolf," the good man said, "see that you chain it by the leg, and in the morning you will find a Lutheran."

    Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

    October 15, 2007

  • milosrdenstvi commented on the word werewolf

    The etymology is pretty cool -- relation to Latin vir never occurred to me before.

    January 19, 2010

  • Louises commented on the word werewolf

    The hunger, in its vicious simplicity, teaches you how to be a werewolf. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.

    April 1, 2012

  • ruzuzu commented on the word werewolf

    (A HORRIFYING CRY OF A WOLF!)

    INGA: Werewolf!

    FREDDY: Werewolf?

    IGOR: There.

    FREDDY: What?

    IGOR: (Pointing to the woods.) There, wolf. (Pointing to the castle.) There, castle.

    FREDDY: Why are you talking that way?

    IGOR: I thought you wanted to.

    FREDDY: No, I don't want to.

    IGOR: Suit yourself... I'm easy.

    --From the movie Young Frankenstein (1974)

    September 19, 2019

  • yarb commented on the word werewolf

    Oughtn't it to be pronounced "weir-wolf"? Otherwise how are you going to talk about werebears without cracking up?

    September 19, 2019

  • ruzuzu commented on the word werewolf

    Ooh. That's definitely how I'll start pronouncing it now.

    *wanders over to wereweasel*

    September 19, 2019