lycanthropyfrom
Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythologylycanthropy n
[fr. Gk lykanthrop(os) wolf-man, equiv. to lyk(os) wolf anthropos man, the former of which, according to mythology, is from the name Lycaon, an Arcadian king transformed into a wolf for presuming to test the divinity of Zeus] 1 : a kind of insanity in which the victim imagines himself to be a wolf or other wild beast 2 : the fable's assumption of the form of a wolf by a human being
and from the
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica:
LYCANTHROPY (Gr. X6icoi, wolf, ävOp~iro~, man), a name employed (I) in folk-lore for the liability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into an animal; (2) in pathology for a form of insanity in which’ the patient believes that he is transformed into an animal and behaves accordingly.
I. Although the term lycanthropy properly speaking refers to metamorphosis into a wolf (see WERWOLF), it is in practicç used of transformation into any animal. The Greeks also spoke of kynanthropy (ithwv, dog); in India and the Asiatic islands the tiger is the commonest form, in North Europe the bear, in Japan the fox, in Africa the leopard or hyena, sometimes also the lion, in South America the jaguar; but though there is a tendency for the most important carnivorous animal of the area to take the first place in stories and beliefs as to transformation, the less important beasts of prey and even harmless animals like the deer also figure among the wer-animals.
Lycanthropy is often confused with transmigration; but the essential feature of the wer-animal is that it is the alternative form or the double of a living human being, while the soul-animal is the vehicle, temporary or permanent, of the spirit of a dead human being. The vampire is sometimes regarded as an example of lycanthropy; but it is in human form, sometimes only a head, ,sometimes a whole body, sometimes that of a living person, at others of a dead man who issues nightly from the grave to prey upon the living.
Even if the denotation of lycanthropy be limited to the animalmetamorphosis of living human beings, the beliefs classed together under this head are far from uniform, and the term is somewhat capriciously applied. The transformation may be voluntary or involuntary, temporary or permanent; the weranimal may be the man himself metamorphosed, it may be his double whose activity leaves the real man to all appearance unchanged, it may be his soul, which goes forth seeking whom it may devour and leaving its body in a state of trance; or it may be no more than the messenger of the human being, a real animal or a familiar spirit, whose intimate connexion with its owner is shown by the fact that any injury to it is believed, by a phenomenon known as repercussion, to cause a correspondinl injury to the human being.
The phenomenon of repercussion, the power of animal metamorphosis, or of sending out a familiar, real or spiritual, as 1 messenger, and the supernormal powers conferred by associatior with such a familiar, are also attributed to the magician, mab and female, all the world over; and witch superstitions ani closely parallel to, if not identical with, lycanthropic beliefs the occasional involuntary character of lycanthropy beinl
almost the sole distinguishing feature. In another direction the phenomenon of repercussion is asserted to manifest itself in connexion with the bush-soul of the West African. and the isa gual of Central America; but though there is no line of demarcation to be drawn on logical grounds, the assumed power of the magician and the intimate association of the bush-soul or the nagual with a human being are not termed lycanthropy. Nevertheless it will be well to touch on both these beliefs here.
(and for the rest of a very intriging entry, click here):
http://100.1911encyclopedia.org/L/LY/LYCANTHROPY.htmand from
Webster's 1828, notice the meaning is more generic:
LYCAN'THROPY, n. [Gr. a wolf, and man.]
A kind of erratic melancholy.
(PLEASE NOTE,
lycanthropy also listed for A Word A Day and Worthless Word for the Day...YCLIU
)
).
