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'''Were''' and '''wer''' are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife".
In folklore and fantasy fiction, ''were-'' is often used as a prefix applied to an animal name to indicate a type of 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 a back formation from ''werewolf'' (literally, "man-wolf"), as there is no equivalent ''wifewolf''. A further back formation, ''polywere'', eliminates the animal root entirely.
In reference to this, the word "were" is also sometimes used as a term of self-identification by members of the therianthropy subculture, though in recent years this usage seems to be declining as more people become aware of its etymology (i.e. that without the animal suffix it simply means "man" rather than "shapeshifter"), and the term "therian" is now more commonly used in that context.

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See also

See also

★ Mannaz

★ Werewolf

★ Weregild

★ Werecat