Etymology

were-

Today it means: Prefixed to animal names to indicate a human that shapeshifts into that animal. Full definition →

Old English werewulf
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromwerewulf
  2. English todaywere-

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

Words from the same roots

Old Englishwerewulf all →

werewolf

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.