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[edit]
The word has cognates in various other languages, for example, Latin vir (as in virility) and Gaelic fear (plural fir as in Fir Bolg) both mean a male human.
It is likely that wer forms part of a compound word in werewolf (man-wolf), although there are other proposed etymologies.[3] In folklore and fantasy fiction, were- is often prefixed to an animal name to indicate a therianthropic figure or shapeshifter (e.g. "were-boar"). Hyphenation used to be mandatory, but is now commonly dropped, as in werecat and wererat. There is no attested counterpart wifwylf or wyfwylf .
See also[edit]
- List of common false etymologies of English words#Other for a longer discussion of wer, wyf, and mann
- Man (word)
- For shapeshifters:
References[edit]
- ^ 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"