# Breton: Werewolf



## Vache qui rit

In my French class, we read a few of the lays of Marie de France. One of them was called "Bisclavret," which she claims is the Breton word for "werewolf." Does that look familiar to any Breton-speakers out there? If not, what's the word currently in use?

Thanks,
Hannah


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## enoo

It seems it is a proper name of a werewolf man, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisclavret 
(My knowledge of breton is limited to a few words, and the only names for wolf that I know are "bleiz" and "ki noz")


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## CapnPrep

I don't speak Breton either, but the sources I have seen seem to agree that this is the word (or one word) for "werewolf" in Breton. For example, this quote from U. T. Holmes (1931):



> Marie reproduces three Breton words more or less correctly in the course of her lays: _Bisclavret_, _Laustic_, and the conjunction _ha_ ('and') […] The first of these is now explained by Loth as _bisc-lavrec_ 'shortened-breeches', a folk name for the werewolf.


If you are interested you might want to track down the 1992 article by Hans Schwerteck cited in the Wikipedia entry, which should have more up-to-date ideas about the origins of the word _Bisclavret_.

Edit. I also found these words in an old dictionary: _den-vleiz_ ("wolfman"), _bleiz-garô_ ("wild wolf"), _bleiz-lavaret_ ("talking wolf"), and here's someone who actually thought to look in a modern Breton dictionary and came up with _bleiz noz_ ("night wolf") and _den-bleiz _("wolfman"). The Breton Wiktionary gives _bleiz-garv_ and _bleiz-noz_.


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## Gavril

Could the _Bis- _of _Bisclavret _be connected to _biz _"finger"?


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## Vache qui rit

Wow, thanks, CapnPrep! That was a lot of really interesting and helpful information in the course of one post.


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