As per the description on the wiki, a Lycan is a subtype of werewolf, whereas the current wiki entry for Were states that it encompasses anyone able to shapeshift into a given animal. Also, since "were" is merely a prefix meaning "man", the correct tag should probably be werebeast.

Unaliasing lycan → were
Aliasing were → werebeast
Implicating werewolf → werebeast
Implicating lycan → werewolf

People are amazingly loose with the terms, is the problem. Not realizing that "Lycan" just means wolf, they use it interchangeably with Were.

And were is an archaic term for man...

Didn't the prefix wer- mean male? I thought werman was the archaic word for man.

BlueDingo said:
Didn't the prefix wer- mean male? I thought werman was the archaic word for man.

You'd be right (as far as my knowledge of english etymology goes, anyway). Waifman is the female equivalent. This is why a lot of people were confused by Sonic turning into a werehog, since it's actually a step up from being a regular hedgehog.

BlueDingo said:
Didn't the prefix wer- mean male? I thought werman was the archaic word for man.

Yeah I had it half-wrong

How do you tag something as specifically a werewolf and not just a buff sexy wolf anthro

GDelscribe said:
How do you tag something as specifically a werewolf and not just a buff sexy wolf anthro

Typical wolf anthros aren't savage and don't possess that "I'm gonna fucking gut you" snarl that werewolves do.

Edit: Savage as in ripping things apart that simply move. As for the snarling, most images I've seen have the werewolf showing his/her teeth [usually coated in fresh blood].

... Aside from Alt and a few others I've seen on this site, who are described as being a werewolf in earlier posts/character origin [Alt being a worgen from WoW.]

GDelscribe said:
How do you tag something as specifically a werewolf and not just a buff sexy wolf anthro

N08L3553-5UPPL1C3 said:
Typical wolf anthros aren't savage and don't possess that "I'm gonna fucking gut you" snarl that werewolves do.

Personally I think werewolf ought to be reserved for images that actually have some indication of transformation - either dialogue, ripped clothing, some special focus on the full moon, actual transformation, etc.

An angry look isn't sufficient to my mind.

BlueDingo said:
Didn't the prefix wer- mean male? I thought werman was the archaic word for man.

Wer- does mean male, and derives from the same roots as virile. Note that to this day most werewolves are hunky variably-rapist males; Germanic legends similarly saw almost solely male werewolves.

Indigenous Brazilian legends have the cumacanga - a female werewolf whose head leaves her body at night, becomes a screaming fireball, and terrorizes the countryside until dawn. Brazil is hardcore like that.

The proper gender-neutral term for all "werebeasts" inclusively is therianthrope. You may more commonly know the wolf-specific term lycanthrope.

And if you can't tell apart a pseudo-feral werewolf from a "hunky wolf anthro" then either you or the artist need to address some severe issues.

FibS said:
And if you can't tell apart a pseudo-feral werewolf from a "hunky wolf anthro" then either you or the artist need to address some severe issues.

Then again, the sheer amount of body types in anthro art does blur the lines a bit.

FibS said:
Indigenous Brazilian legends have the cumacanga - a female werewolf whose head leaves her body at night, becomes a screaming fireball, and terrorizes the countryside until dawn. Brazil is hardcore like that.

So basically, a dullahan werewolf. Cool.

Isn't Lycan the specific term for underworld's werewolves? I feel unalias it and make it implicate underworld would be okay unless they don't count as furry enough or whatevs

FibS said:
Wer- does mean male, and derives from the same roots as virile. Note that to this day most werewolves are hunky variably-rapist males; Germanic legends similarly saw almost solely male werewolves.

Indigenous Brazilian legends have the cumacanga - a female werewolf whose head leaves her body at night, becomes a screaming fireball, and terrorizes the countryside until dawn. Brazil is hardcore like that.

The proper gender-neutral term for all "werebeasts" inclusively is therianthrope. You may more commonly know the wolf-specific term lycanthrope.

And if you can't tell apart a pseudo-feral werewolf from a "hunky wolf anthro" then either you or the artist need to address some severe issues.

I wouldn't go as far as to say "werewolf" is gender-biased, at least not today. The term android generally implies the the individual is male/manly-looking, yet we still alias gynoid to it because the former is more well known and there's no good reason to split the tag in two over a lexical concern.

And as BlueDingo said, an actual werewolf and a regular buff wolf anthro in a bad mood can be hard to tell appart.

Fifteen said:
[...]

And as BlueDingo said, an actual werewolf and a regular buff wolf anthro in a bad mood can be hard to tell apart.

That would be the fault of the artist. For years canine furs have been consistently much more zoo than the rest of the fandom.

Fifteen said:
The term android generally implies the the individual is male/manly-looking, yet we still alias gynoid to it because the former is more well known and there's no good reason to split the tag in two over a lexical concern.

Except most dictionaries define android as a robot that looks like a human.

_{Damn, finding definitions for the word android without running into a shitload of pages talking about the operating system is harder than I thought.}

BlueDingo said:
Except most dictionaries define android as a robot that looks like a human.

_{Damn, finding definitions for the word android without running into a shitload of pages talking about the operating system is harder than I thought.}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(robot)#Etymology

Clawdragons said:
Personally I think werewolf ought to be reserved for images that actually have some indication of transformation - either dialogue, ripped clothing, some special focus on the full moon, actual transformation, etc.

An angry look isn't sufficient to my mind.

1+ both werewolves and standard anthros can take on the same forms from anywhere from humanoid to feral, lanky to buff, serene to agressive, there is no clearly defined difference between to 2 other then the transformative aspect which is not always visible...