lyco-, lyc-, lycos- +

According to some writers, it is a synonym of werewolf; one of those people who (according to medieval superstition) assumed the form of wolves.

In folklore, lycanthropy is the ability of a human to undergo transformation into a wolf or a lycanthrope. The term comes from ancient Greek lykánthropos (λυκάνθρωπος): λύκος, lýkos, "wolf" plus άνθρωπος, ánthrōpos, "mankind, human".

Other applicable terms include: insania lupina; melancholia canina; melancholia zooanthropic.

A reference to lycanthropy.

Someone who is affected by the mental disease of lycanthropy.

1. A kind of insanity described by ancient writers, in which the patient imagined himself/herself to be a wolf, and had the instincts and propensities of a wolf.

Now occasionally applied as a name of those forms of insanity in which patients imagine themselves to be beasts, and exhibit depraved appetites, alteration of voices, etc., in accordance with this delusion.

2. The kind of witchcraft which was supposed to consist of the assumption by human beings of the form and the nature of wolves.

Lycanthropy, the changing of men into wolves has been found over the centuries in literature and folklore through out the world

The term, werewolf, comes from the Latin vir for "man", literally, "man-wolf"; in Russia, the oborol; in Portugal, the lobishomen; in France, the loup-garou; and in Scandinavia, the vagr.

In medieval days, suspected werewolves were sometimes flayed alive in the search for the dreaded wolf skin hidden beneath their human one. While other man-into-beast stories certainly exist, like the frenzied bear-shirters, or ber-serkrs (berserkers), of Scandinavian origin, there are far more accounts of people being changed into wolves.

Lycanthropy is mentioned by Herodotus and Pliny, and there is even a section of the 11th-century treatise Decreta dealing with werewolves who seek absolution. King James VI of Scotland gave an unusually sensitive account of the warwoolfe in his Demonologie of 1597, calling it "a naturall superabundance of melancholie."

Lycanthropy or the belief that one can change him/herself or others into a wolf or some other animal.

1. A respiratory disease caused by inhaling large quantities of spores from the mature mushroom commonly called "puffball".
2. Etymology: Greek lykos, "wolf" plus perdesthai, "to break wind" plus osis, "condition".

1. A wolfish or ravenous appetite.
2. An excessive appetite like that of a wolf.

A spider of the family Lycosidae, comprising the wolf spiders.