Werewolf, werwolf

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 sb.¹, but the form were- in place of wer- (cf. however were- and werʓild 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.

1832.  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 werewolf.

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.  Longf., 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, but is, in an equal proportion, common to both.

  fig.  1902.  B. Paul Neuman, in Spectator, 5 July, 17/1.

  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: & then they neuer feede nor pray vpon any other thing afterwards…. Such Wolues are called Warwolues, 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.  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 Werewolfery, = LYCANTHROPY 2; Werewolfish a.; Werewolfism, = LYCANTHROPY 2.

1831.  A. Herbert in Sir F. Madden, 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. In many cases of persons accused of werwolfery … there was an extraordinary readiness among the accused to confess.

1891.  Century Dict., *Werewolfish.

1865.  Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, 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.