Worgen

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fictional humanoid beast that transforms between human and wolf form, featured in the World of Warcraft video game series
2. A man-wolf hybrid from the fantasy universe of World of Warcraft that can shift between a human shape and a savage wolf form
3. A lycanthropic creature from the Warcraft games, part human and part wolf, able to change its form at will

Etymology: Worgen is a fantasy creature from Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft games: a wolf-like human who transforms under the moon. Its name is a modern coinage built on "worg," a wolf-like monster from fantasy role-playing games, and the word is probably an elaboration of that term rather than an older English word. "Worg" in turn traces back to the Old English "wearg," meaning wolf or criminal outlaw, which shares a Germanic root with Old Norse "vargr," also meaning wolf. The Old English word also gave rise to "wargus," the Latin form used in medieval texts for a wolf or outlaw, and English "warlock" is an unrelated word that is sometimes confused with it. The link to outlawry is the most striking part of the history. An outlaw in early Germanic law was stripped of legal protection and could be killed freely, so the same word came to mean both a wild animal and a person cast beyond society.