Wolfish
/ˈwʊlfɪʃ/noun
Having the nature or appearance of a wolf; fierce, ravenous, or predatory.
Did you know?The suffix -ish is ancient Germanic, so *wolfish* is literally built by turning a real animal into a behavioral archetype—one of language’s oldest ways of naming a person’s inner beast.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*wĺ̥kʷos
“wolf”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*wulfaz
“wolf”
Old English
OE
wulf
“wolf”
Old English
OE
-isc
“of, belonging to; having the nature of”
Middle English
ME
wolfish
“wolf-like; fierce, ravenous”
Modern English
English
wolfish
“having the nature or appearance of a wolf; fierce, predatory”
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