The first element of WEREWOLF used in combination, chiefly with names of animals, to indicate a human being imagined to be transformed into a beast; as were-animal, -ass, -bear, etc.; also were-man. Cf. WER-.
1873. Longf., Wayside Inn, III. Interl. v. 4. The were-wolf is a legend old, But the were-ass is something new.
1883. J. F. M‘Lennan, in Encycl. Brit., XV. 90/1. The Arcadians, or bear-tribe, sprang from the were-bear Callisto. Ibid., 90/2. In Ashango-land, where there are distinct traces of animal worship, a were-leopard was … charged with murder and metamorphosis.
1894. Sat. Rev., 15 Sept., 289/2. The simple explanation … that that beast was a were-calf.
1897. Sir H. H. Johnston, Brit. Centr. Afr., 439. In this respect the belief in ‘were’ animals, that is to say in human beings who have changed themselves into lions or leopards or some such harmful beasts, is nearly universal.
1944. Dayle Douglas, in Altoona Tribune., 3 Jan., 4/7. They [Malays] believe that a man or woman in league with the devil gains the power to change at will into a man-eating animal. At Batu Kawan, the natives believed that Lisbeth was a were-panther.
