English

were-

/weə(ɹ)/
Prefixed to animal names to indicate a human that shapeshifts into that animal.

    Etymology graph

    • inherited
    • borrowed
    • derived
    • parts
    • meaning component
    • sound component
    • related
    React Flow

    Click a node to zoom in · double-click to open it

    Origin

    Back-formation from werewolf (“man-wolf”), from Old English werewulf, derived from wer (“man”) + wulf (“wolf”).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • derivedEnglishwerewolf “A person who is transformed or can transform into a wolf or a wolflike human, often said to do so d…”
      • inheritedOld Englishwerewulf
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*werawulf
          • partProto-West Germanic*wer “man”
          • partProto-West Germanic*wulf “wolf”

    Sources