apparently there's two *wer- root words, one that means "man" (cf. latin vir, virile) and one that means "turn" or "change" (vertex, version)

for the longest time I thought "werewolf" was the first one (making it "wolfman"), which would then imply female werewolves are "wifwolves"

but its probably werewolf = "turns [into] a wolf"