lupus, lup- +
(Latin: wolf [pertaining to or connected with a "wolf"])
Equivalent to: "Between a rock and a hard place." "Between the devil and the deep blue sea."
The gray wolf, commonly referred to as tundra wolf or timber wolf, is the largest of all wild canids, although its size varies noticeably throughout its large range including Minnesota, Michigan, and Montana in the United States and many remote areas of Canada, Alaska and Europe.
Current canine taxonomy indicates that there are three species of wolves in existence today, all members of the genus Canis.
The gray wolf (Canis lupes); (tundra wolf, timber wolf, arctic wolf, buffalo wolf, lobo wolf, etc.) is the largest species with representatives found in North America, Europe, Scandinavia, Middle East, India, and Asia.
The second species, Canis rufus, "red wolf" is a taxa under challenge as to whether it is truly a species of wolf or simply a hybrid offspring of gray wolves mating with coyotes.
The third species of wolf is the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) which lives in Africa and Ethiopia and has previously been classified as a jackal until DNA research proved it to be a true wolf.
Also interpreted as, "Treat him as you would a wild beast."
In Old English law, a person who was declared an outlaw (caput lupinum) could legally be hunted down and killed by anyone who might find him. This meant that a man could be hunted down as if he were a wolf or wild animal.
In Old English law, the sign of an outlaw or criminal.
Also, "prostitute"; leading to lupanar, meaning "brothel".
2. An establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution.
In some places, licensed brothels are legal and in some large cities, brothels may be confined to special "red-light" districts or in recognized places where prostitutes have rooms so they are no longer hanging around on the streets.
Lupercalia is from Lupercal, the name of a grotto at the foot of the Palatine Hill in Rome. It is an ancient Roman festival with fertility rites, held on February 15 in honor of Lupercus, a pastoral god sometimes identified with Faunus. The festival started at the Lupercal where Romulus and Remus were said to have been suckled by the lupa or she-wolf.
Dogs and goats were sacrificed to Faunus and Luperci, or Creppi, young men dressed in goat-skins (or in the nude), ran around the base of the Palatine hill striking women with goat-hide strips, or thongs, called amicula Iunonis or "mantles of Juno". The touch of the lash, or whip, was supposed to make the women fertile.
It was at the Lupercalia in 44 B.C. that Antony, himself a Lupercus, offered Caesar a crown and Shakespeare has Julius Caesar instruct Antony to "touch Calpurnia" so she might become fertile and be rid of her "barren" condition.
From Latin lup(us), "a wolf, a voracious fish, a pike" plus the suffix -ia, "diseases or medical conditions".
Related wolf-word unit: lyco-.