Werewolf

Werewolf (Old English werewulf,”man-wolf”), according to an ancient superstition, a man who is transformed, or who transforms himself, into a wolf in nature and appearance. The werewolf, sometimes transformed under the influence of a full moon, roams about at night, devouring infants or corpses. Stories of such transformations are given in the works of several classical writers and the superstition was common throughout Europe in late medieval times, when many men were accused and convicted of being werewolves. The term lycanthropy refers to the delusion that one has become a wolf.