Etymology: weretiger

In celebration of today's release of the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel, this etymology is in tribute to Quinn - one of my favorite characters from Charlaine Harris' fantastic world of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Quinn, like many of Harris' characters is referred to as a "were", meaning that he has the ability to transform into an animal. According to Harris' particular mythology, most weres can only morph into one specific animal. In Quinn's case, that's an immensely powerful tiger. Therefore, he is referred to as a weretiger, one of the last in fact.

Most likely, we're all familiar with werewolf legends. So the concept of a human who spends part of his or her time running around in the form of a, in most cases dangerous, wild animal is not a foreign concept. but what about the origins of the word. In Old English, the half man/half wolf was referred to as the werewulf, with that first syllable being derived from wer - Old English for "man." Harris makes good use of that convenient root by turning it into a suffix by which she can identify all of her shapeshifting characters.

Of course, the concept of the were is not the sole property of the English-speaking world. Shapeshifters populate legends the world over. One such legend from Thailand tells the story of a tiger that eats so many men that he becomes a weretiger. This is a reversal of our tradition of the human who develops an animal identity.

Keep in mind that one sense of the verb to be, from which we get the verb were, is copular and indicates that one has the state, quality, identity, nature, role of the subsequent noun. This is convenient if we want to suggest that our weres retain the qualities of their respective animals, even when occupying human form.