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| On the Naming of Were[critters]; Lycanthrope = Wolf-Human | |
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| Topic Started: October 2, 2014, 10:51 pm (167 Views) | |
| Dr Archeville | October 2, 2014, 10:51 pm Post #1 |
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So many people know the term Lycanthrope, a fancy term for Werewolf, a person who turns into a wolf and/or a wolf-human hybrid. Some RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons, and Pathfinder) use "Lycanthrope" to refer to all such types of shapechangers, regardless of which animal it is. Problem is, this is linguistically incorrect. Lycanthrope comes from two Greek words, Lykos ("wolf") and Anthropos ("human"), which works fine for werewolves but not other werecreatures. Using the Greek word for whatever animal it is they turn into as the prefix would be more appropriate. With that in mind, here’s what I've cobbled together: A more correct proper term for such shapechangers as a whole would be Therianthrope, from Therion ("beast" or "wild animal") + Anthropos — a term I first encountered in the AD&D 2nd Ed. Monster Manual — or Zoanthrope, from Zoion ("animal" or "living being") + Anthropos.
Miscellanea Greek did of course have its own words for many things, but some were borrowed from other cultures, and some things were named by combining the names of two or more things.
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Graystone: D&D/FR, Dwarf Psion (Shaper) 6 Lam: D&D/FR, Changeling Wizard (Changeling Wizard) 6 Queth: Pathfinder, Elf (Tower Elf) Bard (Archivist) 1 | |
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| Blue Phoenix | November 29, 2014, 8:03 pm Post #2 |
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Administrator-For-Life!
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Ailouranthrope... cat shifter. Pan-therion... allbeast. Pan-therianthrope... shifter of any animal form. (I separate "pan" from "therion" so there is no confusion; we are NOT talking about panthers.) Damn, Doc is in the house again! Love the words, Doc. Really, really love new words like this. Question... do you intend Pan-therianthrope to be a creature who can shift into many animal forms, or the more simple idea of any creature that can shift into ONE animal form? Is this a specific, rare creature or a generic term for any animal-related shifter? |
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