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> They are like the word "man" now ("IDK man").

That's actually how it was originally, because in Old English "man" just meant a gender-neutral "person."

Gendered versions were "wer" and "wif", so you could have a "wer-man" and a "wif-man", the latter changing pronunciation to become "woman". I suppose this also means that there are both "werewolves" and "wifwolves".




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