| 释义 |
were-|wɪə(r)|
The first element of werewolf used in combination, chiefly with names of animals, to indicate a human being imagined to be transformed into a beast; as were-animal, were-ass, were-bear, etc.; also were-man. Cf. wer-. ˈwere-jaguar, in Olmec mythology, a creature partly human and partly feline.
1873Longfellow Wayside Inn iii. Interl. v. 4 The were-wolf is a legend old, But the were-ass is something new. 1883J. F. M'Lennan in Encycl. Brit. XV. 90 The Arcadians, or bear⁓tribe, sprang from the were-bear Callisto. Ibid., In Ashango⁓land,..a were-leopard was..charged with murder and metamorphosis. 1894Sat. Rev. 15 Sept. 289/2 The simple explanation..that that beast was a were-calf. 1897Sir H. H. Johnston Brit. Centr. Afr. 439 In this respect the belief in ‘were’ animals..is nearly universal. 1967L. Deuel Conquistadors without Swords xviii. 235 Today,..more than 400 years after the Spanish Conquest and 2,000..years since its origin, the were-jaguar, the nawal, is still invoked to frighten children who will not go to sleep. 1967E. P. Benson Maya World ii. 24 Olmec art is full of creatures who are part human and part feline... Often they are a combination of human infant and jaguar. They are called ‘were-jaguars’. 1979E. Abrams tr. H. Stierlin's Precolombian Civilizations 68 This werejaguar figure tenoned into the wall of the pyramid at Chavín. |