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I, Lycanthrope

Etymological Origins In The English Language


As a life long English speaker, and having a very limited interest in etymology or linguistics, this book shall only briefly concern itself with the English naming conventions surrounding werewolves, and that only as it is practically necessary to prevent confusion for the reader.1

The term “Werewolf” stems from the old english werwulf, wer meaning man and wulf meaning, of course, wolf.

“Lycanthrope” is the preferred term for those carrying out a more methodical study of the species. It stems from the ancient greek lukanthropos, lukan meaning wolf and thropos meaning man.

It is commonplace to hear werewolves referred to by other names, often dependent on the habit and culture of individual localities. Examples such as wolfman or wolfwoman are commonplace. In areas where werewolves have out-competed naturally occurring wolf populations – a feat which requires an advanced and, in modern times, highly abnormal rate of local infection – locals will sometimes refer to werewolves simply as wolves, which can be a dangerous source of confusion for the novice hunter of lycanthropes.2

Some local naming conventions can appear quite nonsensical to the informed hunter of lycanthropes. Take the common misnomers “wereman” and “werewoman”, which literally mean “manman” and “manwoman.”

The feral werewolf, of course, does not care a whit what humanity calls it, so long as it can nuzzle fondly at a human being’s entrails now and again. However, for our purposes, I will use the terms werewolf and lycanthrope, exclusively and interchangeably, and, in order to avoid fomenting confusion in the world at large, I highly recommend readers do the same.


  1. For readers who wish to dive deep into the lake of etymology, I am quite certain the internet will be forthcoming. I might suggest a simple Google search along the lines of “werewolf in other languages”.
  2. For a story involving my own confusion, and near evisceration, resulting from this particular quirk of local terminology, head to part 2.

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