werewolf

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

Arts, Literature, Language Courses, Education

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2023

⏱️ 2 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 30, 2023 is:

werewolf • \WAIR-woolf\ • noun

Werewolf refers to a person transformed into a wolf or capable of assuming a wolf's form, especially during the full moon.

// She went to the Halloween party dressed as a werewolf, wearing faux fur from head to toe.

See the entry >

Examples:

"With her brother and sister, Marnie follows her grandma to a city called Halloweentown, where ghosts and goblins and werewolves live side by side." — Claudia Guthrie, ELLE, 28 Aug. 2023

Did you know?

Although English sometimes makes use of other words for howling humanoid beasties, werewolf is the leader of the pack. It’s also an ancient word, tracing all the way back to the Old English werwulf, and before that to a prehistoric predecessor that also left its paw prints on German (Werwolf) and Dutch (weerwolf). Synonyms for werewolf in English include the obscure lycanthrope, which has roots in two Greek words (lykos, meaning "wolf," and anthrōpos, meaning "human being"), and loup-garou, which comes from Old French. Whichever you use, the lycanthropic creatures these words refer to most often assume wolf form during a full moon—at least in works of fiction. There are no credible studies to date on the behavior of real-life werewolves, as scientists have yet to find the silver bullet that proves they exist.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's Mariam Webster's Word of the Day for October 30th.
0:11.3	Today's word is Werewolf, spelled W-E-R-E-W-O-L-F. Werewolf is a noun.
0:20.1	It refers to a person transformed into a wolf, or capable of assuming a wolf's form, especially
0:26.8	during the full moon.
0:28.9	Here's the word used in a sentence from L by Claudia Guthrie.
0:33.2	With her brother and sister, Marney follows her grandma to a city called Halloween town,
0:38.6	where ghosts and goblins and werewolves live side by side.
0:43.8	Although English sometimes makes use of other words for howling humanoid beasties, werewolf
0:49.7	is the leader of the pack.
0:51.9	It's also an ancient word, tracing all the way back to the old English word werewolf,
0:58.0	and before that to a prehistoric predecessor that also left its paw prints on German,
1:03.7	with the word werewolf, and Dutch with a similar word.
1:07.9	Synonyms for werewolf in English include the obscure Lycanthrope, which has roots in two
1:14.4	Greek words, and Lugaru, which comes from Old French, whichever you use the Lycanthropic
1:21.5	creatures these words refer to most often assume wolf form during a full moon, at least
1:27.6	in works of fiction.
1:29.3	There are no credible studies to date on the behavior of real-life werewolves, as scientists
1:34.4	have yet to find the silver bullet that proves they exist.
1:38.4	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Merriam-Webster, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Merriam-Webster and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.