Were
Were and wer are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures[1] (Old English: wer, Old Dutch: wer, Gothic: waír, Old Frisian: wer, Old Saxon: wer, Old High German: wer, Old Norse: verr).
In Anglo-Saxon law wer was the value of a man's life. He could be required to pay his wer to the king as a penalty for crime.[2] If he was murdered then his relatives were entitled to his wergild as compensation from the murderer.
Etymology and usage
The word has cognates in various other languages, for example, the words vir (as in virility) and fear (plural fir as in Fir Bolg) are the Latin and Gaelic for a male human.
While this prefix may not be derived from the above word,[3] in folklore and fantasy fiction, were- is often used as a prefix applied to an animal name to indicate a type of therianthropic figure or shapeshifter (e.g. "were-boar"). Hyphenation used to be mandatory, but is now commonly dropped, as in werecat and wererat. This usage can be seen as analogical reformation from werewolf (literally, "man-wolf"), as there is no equivalent wifwylf or wyfwylf yet attested.
See also
- List of common false etymologies of English words#Other for a longer discussion of wer, wyf, and mann
- Man (word)
- For shapeshifters:
References
- Rauer, Christine (January 2017). "Mann and Gender in Old English Prose: A Pilot Study". Neophilologus. 101 (1): 139–158. doi:10.1007/s11061-016-9489-1. hdl:10023/8978. S2CID 55817181.
- Molyneaux, George (2015). The Formation of the English Kingdom in the Tenth Century. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-19-871791-1.
- Concise OED, entry "werewolf"