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Nitpicky note to RPG writers and fantasy writers who have taken their cues from them:
A lycanthrope is a WEREWOLF. Lykos in Greek means WOLF. It does not mean 'beast' or 'animal.' Therefore, a lycanthrope shouldn't be anything other than a person who can turn into a WOLF. Not a tiger, not a snake, not a rat, not a bear, not any other kind of animal. If you're looking for a general term for a person who can shapeshift into an animal (or animal-like humanoid), the correct term is therianthrope because therion in Greek means beast or wild animal. Why do you use the incorrect term when one is already available? Is it because you feel that lycanthrope is easier to say than therianthrope?
And for those who are too lazy or impatient to type out or say the word therianthrope, here's another note for you: the were in werewolf means MAN. The word werewolf literally translates to 'Wolfman' (or rather, Man-Wolf) in Old English and the same holds true for the German equivalent, Werwolf, and the Dutch equivalent, weerwolf.
So, when you say 'weres' as a catch-all term for animal shapeshifters, not only does it make me wince because of how lame it sounds, but also because you're literally saying 'men.' You're calling the magical animal shapeshifters regular men. Because that's all that the word means. When people expand the term to include other animals, such as werecat, wereraven, werebear, etc., they're actually calling them, "man-cat, man-raven, man-bear." I don't know how you got into your heads the idea that the word 'were' means magical shapeshifter, but it doesn't.
Look, I know that the word 'were' is a lot shorter than 'therianthrope', but if you must use an abbreviated version, could you actually use one that makes sense? At least the shortened version of therianthrope that I've seen floating around, therian, actually means what is being focused on: a wild animal. Heck, you could consider it to still be a mixture of the words for beast and man, taking the 'ther' from 'therion' (wild beast) and 'an' from 'anthropos' (human, person). Or call them animal shifters or just shifters or something. Anything else that wouldn't make my inner language nerd cringe.
A lycanthrope is a WEREWOLF. Lykos in Greek means WOLF. It does not mean 'beast' or 'animal.' Therefore, a lycanthrope shouldn't be anything other than a person who can turn into a WOLF. Not a tiger, not a snake, not a rat, not a bear, not any other kind of animal. If you're looking for a general term for a person who can shapeshift into an animal (or animal-like humanoid), the correct term is therianthrope because therion in Greek means beast or wild animal. Why do you use the incorrect term when one is already available? Is it because you feel that lycanthrope is easier to say than therianthrope?
And for those who are too lazy or impatient to type out or say the word therianthrope, here's another note for you: the were in werewolf means MAN. The word werewolf literally translates to 'Wolfman' (or rather, Man-Wolf) in Old English and the same holds true for the German equivalent, Werwolf, and the Dutch equivalent, weerwolf.
So, when you say 'weres' as a catch-all term for animal shapeshifters, not only does it make me wince because of how lame it sounds, but also because you're literally saying 'men.' You're calling the magical animal shapeshifters regular men. Because that's all that the word means. When people expand the term to include other animals, such as werecat, wereraven, werebear, etc., they're actually calling them, "man-cat, man-raven, man-bear." I don't know how you got into your heads the idea that the word 'were' means magical shapeshifter, but it doesn't.
Look, I know that the word 'were' is a lot shorter than 'therianthrope', but if you must use an abbreviated version, could you actually use one that makes sense? At least the shortened version of therianthrope that I've seen floating around, therian, actually means what is being focused on: a wild animal. Heck, you could consider it to still be a mixture of the words for beast and man, taking the 'ther' from 'therion' (wild beast) and 'an' from 'anthropos' (human, person). Or call them animal shifters or just shifters or something. Anything else that wouldn't make my inner language nerd cringe.
