werewolf, werwolf
(ˈwɪə-, ˈwɜːwʊlf)
Forms: α. 1 werewulf, (3 -wlf), 7–9 -wolf; pl. 5 -wolfes, 9 weir-, werewolves. β. 4–7, 9 werwolf (6 Sc. -woif); pl. 4 -wolfs, -wolues, 9 werwolves. γ. 5–7 Sc., 9 warwolf, 5–7 -wolfe, (7 Sc. warewolf, warwoof); pl. 6 Sc. -wo(o)lfes, 7 Sc. -woophs. δ. 9 wehrwolf.
[OE. werewulf (once), = MDu. and Du. weerwolf, MHG. werwolf (G. wer-, wehrwolf), LG. werwulf; also WFris. waerûl, warûle (and waerwolf after Du.), Da. and Norw. varulv, Sw. varulf. The latter may represent an ON. *varulf-r, whence ONF. garwall (Marie de France, c 1175), later guaroul, -ou, garoul, -ou, warou, -eu (mod.F. loupgarou); ON. vargulf-r (by association with varg-r wolf) occurs only in the translation of Marie's lay of Bisclavret.
The first element has usually been identified with OE. wer man were n.1, but the form were- in place of wer- (cf. however were- and werᵹild wergeld), and the variants in war-, var-, makes this somewhat doubtful.
Evidence for the real currency of the word (chiefly in the β and γ forms) is rare, and confined to Sc., after the 17th cent. In modern use it has been revived through folk-lore studies, and until recently the most usual form has been werewolf, and occas. wehrwolf from German.]
1. A person who (according to mediæval superstition) was transformed or was capable of transforming himself at times into a wolf; † also, an exceptionally large and ferocious wolf.
| α c 1000 Laws Cnut xxvi. (Lieberm.) Þæt se wodfreca werewulf to swyðe ne slite, ne to fela ne abite of godcundre heorde. c 1212 Gervase of Tilbury Otia Imper. xv. in Leibnitz Script. Brunsv. (1707) I. 895 Quod hominum genus gerulfos Galli nominant, Angli vero Werewlf, dicunt. c 1400 Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) vi, Þer beth some [wolves] þat eten children and men..And þei be cleped werewolfes, for men shulde be were of hem, or þe mann see hem. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. 237 The were-wolues are certaine sorcerers, who hauing annoynted their bodyes, with an oyntment which they make by the instinct of the deuil; and putting on a certaine inchanted girdel, do not only vnto the view of others seeme as wolues, but to their own thinking haue both the shape and nature of wolues, so long as they weare the said girdel. [Hence in Blount Glossogr. (1656), etc.] 1818 Q. Rev. XIX. 68 The weir-wolves of the wilds of Indiana. 1831 A. Herbert in Will. & Werwolf (Roxb.) 4 As a punishment for his ferocity he [sc. Lycaon] was deprived by Jupiter of the human form, and ended his days a were⁓wolf. 1863 W. K. Kelly Curios. Indo-Europ. Tradit. 253 Stories about werewolves are still current in Germany. 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. I. iii. 77 The old doctrine of Werewolves, not yet extinct in Europe. 1891 Farrar Darkn. & Dawn xxvi. 213 Stories of magic and vampires and were-wolves told them by travelled youths. |
| fig. 1872 Longfellow Wayside Inn ii. Interl. i. 23 The brutes that wear our form and face, The were-wolves of the human race! |
| β c 1350 Will. Palerne 15 Þat while was þe werwolf went a-boute his praye. Ibid. 3836, I wold him hunte as hard as euer hounde in erthe honted eny werwolf. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 459 Þei ben wilde wer-wolues, þat wiln þe folk robben. 1470–85 Malory Arthur xix. xi. 793 His wyf..made hym seuen yere a werwolf. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 251 Wod werwolf [v.r. werwoif], worme and scorpion vennemous. ? 1605 Drayton Poems Lyr. & Past., Man in Moone G 8 b, About the fields religiously they went, with halowing charms the Werwolf thence to fray. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxv, All the German superstitions of nixies, oak-kings, wer-wolves, hob-goblins. 1868 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1870) 115 Lycaon,..after passing through all the stages I have mentioned, becomes the ancestor of the werwolf. 1912 E. O'Donnell Werwolves xiii. 212 As in France, the werwolf, in Belgium, is not restricted to one sex. |
| fig. 1902 Spectator 5 July 17/1 When from that underworld..The werwolves of the darkness pour by night And show..their misery and their guilt. |
| γ c 1480 Henryson Parl. Beasts xiv, The warwolf and the pegase perillous. 1483 Cath. Angl. 409/1 A Warwolfe, ravus. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon clvi a. 602 Huon the souerayne kyng of the fayry..wolde condempne hym parpetually to be a warwolfe in the se [Fr. luyton de mer]. 1576 Turberv. Venerie lxxv. 206 Some Wolues..kill children and men sometimes: and then they neuer feede nor pray vpon any other thing afterwards... Such Wolues are called War⁓wolues, bicause a man had neede to beware of them. [Cf. c 1400 in α.] 1597 Jas. VI Dæmonol. iii. i. 61 And are not war-woolfes one sorte of these spirites also..? c 1622 Rowley, etc. Birth of Merlin v. i. 106 Where no Night-hag shall walk, nor Ware-wolf tread. 1665 Sir J. Lauder (Fountainhall) Jrnl. (1900) 83 Instead of our red dracons and giants they have lougarous or warwoophs. a 1800 Kempion xvii. in Scott Minstrelsy (1802) II. 96 O was it warwolf in the wood..? 1817 Coleridge Zapolya ii. i. i. 337 Madam, that wood is haunted by the war-wolves. 1897 Baring-Gould Guavas xvi, They hold Loup [a tamed wolf] to be naught else but a war-wolf. |
| δ 1834 W. J. Thoms Lays & Leg., France 57 The Lay of Bisclavaret; or, the Wehr-wolf. 1855 D. Costello in Bentley's Misc. XXXVIII. 361 Lycanthropy in London; or The Wehr-Wolf of Wilton-Crescent. 1884 J. Davidson Bruce iv. iv, The wehrwolf, ravening in the warren, growls. 1913 R. Hodder Vampire viii. 43 The wehrwolf who discards his human form to bury his fangs in the throats of sleeping children. |
2. Sc. dial. (See
quot.)
| 1808 Jamieson, Warwolf..2. A puny child or an ill-grown person of whatever age; pron. warwoof, Ang. |
3. A member of a right-wing paramilitary German underground resistance movement.
| 1945 in Amer. Speech (1949) XXIV. 289/2 It boasted that..underground killers—‘Werewolves’—had carried out the sentence. 1946 E. Linklater Private Angelo xxi. 266 A company of Free Austrians who..handed him over to a ridiculous little party of people who called themselves Werewolves. 1950 C. MacInnes To Victors the Spoils i. 111 Isn't it going to be dangerous..? What about the Gestapo and the werewolves? 1982 C. Thomas Jade Tiger 48 The subject matter of the interrogation—local conditions, Werewolf units, SS and Gestapo individuals' whereabouts. |
4. attrib., as
werewolf nails, etc.;
werewolf girdle, the enchanted girdle by means of which a man could transform himself into a wolf.
| 15.. Rowll's Cursing 192 (Bannatyne MS.), Dragoun heidis and warwolf nalis, With glowrane evne as glitterand glass. 1863 W. K. Kelly Curios. Indo-Europ. Tradit. 255 In Germany..the skin of a man that has been hanged makes as good a werewolf girdle as the skin of a wolf. 1879 M. D. Conway Demonol. I. 158 The Were-wolf superstition, which exists still in Russia. 1883 Stallybrass Grimm's Teut. Mythol. III. 1096 Bodin's Dæmonomanie..has several werewolf stories. |
Hence
ˈwerewolfery,
= lycanthropy 2;
ˈwerewolfish a.;
ˈwerewolfism,
= lycanthropy 2.
| 1831 A. Herbert in Will. & Werwolf (Roxb.) 3 It is obvious to suspect that the most ancient Lycians were proficients in *werewolfery. 1912 E. O'Donnell Werwolves i. 3 Persons accused of werwolfery. |
| 1891 Century Dict., *Werewolfish. |
| 1865 Baring-Gould Werewolves viii. 100 The traditional belief in *were-wolfism must, however, have remained long in the popular mind. 1901 Edin. Rev. July 198 In fact ‘were-wolfism’ is now known to have made the round of the globe. |