Also in mod.L. form lycanthropia. [ad. Gr. λυκανθρωπία, f. λυκάνθρωπος: see LYCANTHROPE.]
1. A kind of insanity described by ancient writers, in which the patient imagined himself to be a wolf, and had the instincts and propensities of a wolf. Now occasionally applied as a name of those forms of insanity in which the patient imagines himself a beast, and exhibits depraved appetites, alteration of voice, etc., in accordance with this delusion.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., V. i. (1886), 73. Lycanthropia is a disease and not a transformation.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 166. That malady, which is … named by the Græcians … lycanthropie.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. I. iv. Lycanthropia,… or Wolf-madness, when men run howling about graves and fields in the night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves or some such beasts.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, St. Paul’s Combat, i. Wks. 1808, V. 321. It is contrary to the delusions of lycanthropy. There, be, that is a man, thinks himself a beast; here, he, that is a beast, thinks himself a man.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 68. His Madness hath formed itself into a perfect Lycanthropy. He doth so verily believe himself to be a Wolf, that his speech is all turned into howling, yelling, and barking.
a. 1779. Warburton, Serm. on Matt. iv. 24, Wks. 1788, V. 429. The madness called Lycanthropy.
1818. Lady Morgan, Fl. Macarthy (1819), III. ii. 75. I am not well, surely, Sir,… and thinks betimes that it’s the lycanthropia I have got, which Maister Camden saith was common to the ancient Irish.
1891. Driver, Introd. Lit. O. T. (1892), 469. Nebuchadnezzar’s seven years’ insanity (lycanthropy) with his edict respecting it.
1891. Sydney, Eng. 18th C., I. 27. Young boys and girls were bred … in crime, even to the pitch of moral lycanthropy.
2. The kind of witchcraft that was supposed to consist in the assumption by human beings of the form and nature of wolves.
1830. Scott, Demonol., vii. 210. Persons accused of the crime of lycanthropy.
1865. Lecky, Ration., I. I. 82. Lycanthropy or the transformation of witches into wolves.
