werewolf

The word werewolf predates English, which means it was first used some time before the year 400. It’s a compound of wer-, meaning “male person”, and -wolf, meaning “wolf”. Basically just “Man-Wolf” (1962, DC Comics) or “The Wolf Man” (1941, Universal Pictures), except using what was then the word for “man”.

Notably, wer used to be the English word for “husband” before husband took over its meaning around 1300, a revelation if, like me, you ever wondered why it looks so different from “wife”. A married couple were wer and wyf before then. The Latin equivalent is vir-, like in virile.

Today, were- is a productive prefix in English, yielding gems like weretiger, which can be used without any consideration to the weretiger’s gender.