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Werewolf - 4 dictionary results

were⋅wolf

  [wair-woolf, weer-, wur-]
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–noun, plural -wolves  [-woolvz] .
(in folklore and superstition) a human being who has changed into a wolf, or is capable of assuming the form of a wolf, while retaining human intelligence.
Also, werwolf.

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME werwolf, OE werwulf, equiv. to wer man (c. Goth wair, L vir) + wulf wolf; c. MD weerwolf, OHG werwolf
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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were·wolf also wer·wolf   (wâr'wŏŏlf', wîr'-, wûr'-)   
n.  A person believed to have been transformed into a wolf or to be capable of assuming the form of a wolf.

[Middle English, from Old English werewulf : wer, man; see wī-ro- in Indo-European roots + wulf, wolf; see wolf.]
Word History: The wolf in werewolf is current English; the were is not. Werewulf, "werewolf," occurs only once in Old English, about the year 1000, in the laws of King Canute: "lest the madly ravenous werewolf too savagely tear or devour too much from a godly flock." The wer- or were- in wer(e)wulf means "man"; it is related to Latin vir with the same meaning, the source of virile and virility. Both the Germanic and the Latin words derive from Indo-European *wīro-, "man." Wer- also appears, though much disguised, in the word world. World is first recorded (written wiaralde) in Old English in a charter dated 832; the form worold occurs in Beowulf. The Old English forms come from Germanic *wer-ald-, "were-eld" or "man-age." The transfer of meaning from the age of humans to the place where they live has a parallel in the Latin word saeculum, "age, generation, lifetime," later "world."
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Werewolf

Were"wolf`\, n.; pl. Werewolves. [AS. werwulf; wer a man + wulf a wolf; cf. G. w["a]rwolf, w["a]hrwolf, wehrwolf, a werewolf, MHG. werwolf. [root]285. See Were a man, and Wolf, and cf. Virile, World.] 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.

The werwolf went about his prey. --William of Palerne.

The brutes that wear our form and face, The werewolves of the human race. --Longfellow.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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werewolf 
late O.E. werewulf "person with the power to turn into a wolf," from wer "man" + wulf (see wolf; also see here for a short discussion of the mythology). The first element probably is from PIE *uiHro "freeman" (cf. Skt. vira-, Lith. vyras, L. vir, O.Ir. fer, Goth. wair). Cf. M.Du. weerwolf, O.H.G. werwolf, Swed. varulf. In the ancient Persian calendar, the eighth month (October-November) was Varkazana-, lit. "(Month of the) Wolf-Men."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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