Etymologising the Slavic werewolf

Stachowski K.

WELT DER SLAVEN-HALBJAHRESSCHRIFT FUR SLAVISTIK, cilt.67, sa.2, ss.369-392, 2022 (AHCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 67 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.13173/ws.67.2.369
  • Dergi Adı: WELT DER SLAVEN-HALBJAHRESSCHRIFT FUR SLAVISTIK
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, Periodicals Index Online, Linguistic Bibliography, MLA - Modern Language Association Database
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.369-392
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

The multitude of Slavic names for 'werewolf' (conflated with 'vampire' in the south) can be reduced to just ten types, of which the most widespread are I-dl (vukodlak), and I-I (wilkolak). The paper focuses primarily on these two, in combination with rd-I (vurdalak), and rk-I (varkolak). The remaining six types are examined more briefly, as are related names in circum-Slavic languages. Eight etymologies are discussed, of which half assume an Oriental provenance of our word. Ultimately, a native proposal is judged the most probable even though there are known difficulties associated with it, and this paper identifies some new ones.