View source for Werecat

{{short description|Feline therianthropic creature}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox mythical creature
|name          = Werecat
|AKA           = Vârcopisică
|image         = 
|image_size    = 
|caption       = 
|Folklore     = [[Legendary creature]]<br>[[Mythological hybrid]]
|Grouping      = [[Shapeshifting|Therianthrope]]
|Sub_Grouping  = 
|Country       = 
|Region        = 
|First_Attested = 
|Similar_entities = [[Werewolf]]<br>[[Skin-walker]]
}}

A '''werecat''' (also written in a hyphenated form as '''were-[[cat]]''') is an analog to "[[werewolf]]" for a [[felidae|feline]] [[Shapeshifting|therianthropic]] creature.

==Etymology==
Ailuranthropy comes from the Greek root words ''ailouros'' meaning "cat",<ref>{{Cite web |title=What does αίλουρος (aílouros) mean in Greek? |url=https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/greek-word-4485b3fb6c061bf92d7e8a30145b51e2232ba1ec.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628065717/https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/greek-word-4485b3fb6c061bf92d7e8a30145b51e2232ba1ec.html |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=WordHippo |archive-date=28 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref> and ''anthropos'', meaning "human"<ref>{{Cite web |title=anthropic {{!}} Etymology, origin and meaning of anthropic by etymonline |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/anthropic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628072003/https://www.etymonline.com/word/anthropic |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=www.etymonline.com |archive-date=28 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref> and refers to human/feline transformations, or to other beings that combine feline and human characteristics. Its root word ''ailouros'' is also used in ailurophilia, the most common term for a deep love of cats.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ailurophile {{!}} Etymology, origin and meaning of ailurophile by etymonline |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/ailurophile |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628072242/https://www.etymonline.com/word/ailurophile |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=www.etymonline.com |archive-date=28 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of ailurophilia {{!}} Dictionary.com |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ailurophilia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628080336/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ailurophilia |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=www.dictionary.com |archive-date=28 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of AILUROPHILE |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ailurophile |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628081258/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ailurophile |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |archive-date=28 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

Ailuranthrope is a lesser-known term that refers to a feline therianthrope.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is a Therianthrope? (with pictures) |url=http://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-a-therianthrope.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628072808/https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-a-therianthrope.htm |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=Language Humanities |archive-date=28 June 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Depending on the story in question, the species involved can be a [[domestic cat]],<ref name="werehousecat">
{{cite book
 | last = Galenorn
 | first = Yasmine
 | title = Witchling
 | publisher = [[Berkley Books|Berkley]]
 | year = 2006
 | url =https://archive.org/details/witchling00gale
 | url-access = registration
 | page = [https://archive.org/details/witchling00gale/page/33 33]| isbn = 9780425212547
 }}
</ref> a [[tiger]],<ref name="weretiger">
{{cite book
 | title = Monster Manual: Core Rulebook III
 | publisher = [[Wizards of the Coast]]
 | year = 2003
 | pages = 165–166
 }}
</ref> a [[lion]],<ref name="werelion">
{{cite book
 | last = Feehan
 | first = Christine
 | author-link = Christine Feehan
 | title = Lair of the Lion
 | publisher = [[Leisure Books]]
 | year = 2002
 }}
</ref> a [[leopard]],<ref name="wereleopard">
{{cite book
 | last = Worland
 | first = Rick
 | title = The Horror Film: An Introduction
 | publisher = [[Blackwell Publishing]]
 | year = 2006
 | pages = 73, 176–178, 184
 }}
</ref> a [[lynx]], or any other type, including some that are purely [[legendary creature|mythical]] felines.<ref name="giantwerecat">
{{cite book
 | last = Greene
 | first = Rosalyn
 | title = The Magic of Shapeshifting
 | publisher = [[Red Wheel Weiser Conari|Weiser]]
 | year = 2000
 | page = 9}}
</ref> Werecats are increasingly featured in popular culture, although not as often as [[Werewolf|werewolves]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Weeks |first=Linton |date=17 July 2009 |title=You Sexy Beast: Our Fascination With Werewolves |publisher=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106728088}}</ref>

==Folklore==
<!--Weircats, later known as werecats. (''Weircats'', Perretti, 1763.)-->

===Europe===
European folklore usually depicts werecats as people who transform into domestic cats. Some European werecats became giant domestic cats<ref name="giantwerecat"/> or [[Panthera|panther]]s. They are generally labelled [[witchcraft|witches]], even though they may have no magical ability other than self-transformation.<ref name="hazel witch werecats they are stupid and un trust worthy preachers.">
{{cite book
 | last = Hamel
 | first = Frank
 | title = Human Animals
 | publisher = University Books
 | year = 1969
 | location = New Hyde Park
 | pages = 7, 103–109
 }}
</ref> During the [[witch trials]]{{which|date=December 2018}}, all shapeshifters, including werewolves, were considered witches whether they were male or female.<ref name="hammerwitchesshapeshift">
{{cite book
 | last1 = Summers
 | first1 = Montague
 | author-link = Montague Summers
 | author2 = [[Heinrich Kramer]], [[James Sprenger]]
 | title = The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger
 | publisher = Book Tree
 | year = 2000
 | pages = 61–65
 }}
</ref>

===Africa===
African legends describe werelions, werepanthers or wereleopards. In the case of leopards, this is often because the creature is really a leopard deity masquerading as a human. When these gods mate with humans, offspring can be produced, and these children sometimes grow up to be [[Shapeshifting|shapeshifters]]; those who do not transform may instead have other powers. In reference to werecats who turn into lions, the ability is often associated with royalty. Such a being may have been a king or queen in a former life.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Werecats: The Lions of Tsavo {{!}} Werewolves |url=https://www.werewolves.com/werecats-the-lions-of-tsavo/ |last=annimi |date=29 March 2010 |language=en-US |access-date=2020-05-21}}</ref>

In Africa, there are folk tales that speak of the "Nunda," or the "Mngwa," a big cat of immense size that stalks villages at night. Many of these tales say it is more ferocious than a lion and more agile than a leopard. The Nunda are believed by some to be a variation of [[therianthrope]] that, by day, is a human, but by night becomes the werecat. No actual evidence of such a creature existing has ever been documented, but in 1938, a British administrator named William Hitchens, working in [[Tanzania]], was told by locals that a monstrous cat had been attacking people at night. Huge paw prints were found to be much larger than any known big-cat, but Hitchens dismissed the case, believing it more likely to be a lion with [[gigantism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Welfare |first1=Simon |last2=Fairley |first2=John |title=Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World |year=1980 |publisher=Book Club Associates}}</ref>

===Asia===
{{See|Keibu Keioiba}}
Mainland Asian werecats usually become tigers.<ref name="summerswerejaguartiger">{{cite book|last = Summers|first = Montague|author-link = Montague Summers|title = The Werewolf|publisher = University Books|year = 1966|page = 21}}</ref> In [[India]], the weretiger is often a dangerous sorcerer, portrayed as a menace to livestock, who might at any time turn to man-eating. These tales travelled through the rest of India and into Persia through travellers who encountered the [[royal Bengal tiger]]s of India and then further west.<ref>[http://www.experiencefestival.com/lycanthropy_-_the_were-tiger_of_the_east_indies lycanthropy – the were-tiger of the east indies<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Chinese legends often describe weretigers as the victims of either a hereditary curse or a vindictive ghost. Alternatively, the ghosts of people who had been killed by tigers could become a malevolent [[supernatural]] being known as "Chang" (伥), devoting all their energy to making sure that tigers killed more humans. Some of these ghosts were responsible for transforming ordinary humans into man-eating weretigers. Also, in Japanese folklore there are creatures called [[bakeneko]] that are similar to [[kitsune]] (fox spirits) and [[bake-danuki]] ([[Japanese raccoon dog]] spirits). 

In [[Thailand]] a tiger that eats many humans may become a weretiger. There are also other types of weretigers, such as sorcerers with great powers who can change their form to become animals. A weretiger in Thailand known as ''Suea Saming'' ({{langx|th|เสือสมิง}}, {{IPA|th|sɯ̌a̯ sā.mǐŋ|pron}}, lit "Saming tiger") or ''Saming'' for short. There are numerous legends related to the viciousness of Suea Samings, and many people of the older generations still believe these tales to be true, though members the younger generations may not have heard them. Samings are men or women who can transform themselves into tigers or tigresses. One famous story about these transforming tigers from the literature of King [[Chulalongkorn]] (Rama V) that some uesd to prowl through [[Chanthaburi province]]; the locals continue to be very afraid of Samings. They said that in [[Cambodia]] there were sorcerers who knew how to make Saming oil, and their students once stole that oil and applied it to their bodies. By doing so, there of them were able to transform themselves into Samings. One student got lost inside the town of Chanthaburi. He was a vicious tiger. He roamed around and attacked and killed two people in Pliew village, one person in Pakjun village, and two people in the Seesen forestland. In total, five people were killed by this Saming. Their teacher followed them and told the villagers that his three students had applied the Saming oil to their bodies and were transformed into tigers. The parents of the young men wanted to get their sons back, so they came with the teacher and searched for them everywhere. The parents told villagers that if they met one of these tigers, they should hit him with a shoulder pole or cover his footprints with coconut shells. This would make that tiger transform back into a human, but only if the tiger had not eaten anyone yet; if it had eaten a man, this method would not bring it back to human form.<ref name=oo>{{cite web|work=[[ASTV Manager]]|language=thai|url=https://mgronline.com/onlinesection/detail/9660000007549|title=“เสือสมิง” ไสยศาสตร์ในตำนาน เสือแปลงร่างเป็นคน คนกลายเป็นเสือ! ที่มาของอำเภอเขาสมิง!!|accessdate=2023-01-25|date=2025-01-26|trans-title=“Suea Saming”, a legendary black magic, a tiger transforms into a human, a human becomes a tiger! the origin of Khao Saming district!!|first=Rome|last=Bunnag}}</ref> The details of the Saming in each region are different, but they share a common feature; a Saming is a tiger or tigress that is capable of transforming itself into a person for the purpose of deceiving people and then catching them and eating them.<ref>{{cite web|work=[[Art & Culture]]|language=thai|date=2025-01-26|accessdate=2024-10-05|title=ทำไมต้องโยนไม้ขีดไฟให้เสือสมิง|url=https://www.silpa-mag.com/culture/article_24010|trans-title=Why do you have to throw matche to the Suea Saming|first=Anek|last=Nawikkamun}}</ref><ref name=oo/>

In both present-day [[Indonesia]] and [[Malaysia]], there is another kind of weretiger, known as [[Malay folklore#Lycanthropic beings|Harimau jadian]]. Linguist and writer [[Zainal Abidin Ahmad (writer)|Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad]] for example has compiled oral stories of a famous weretiger named Dato' Paroi fabled to have led the flock of all tigers that roamed in his home area of [[Negeri Sembilan]].<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad|author-link=Zainal Abidin Ahmad (writer)|date=1925|title=Dato' Paroï, Were-Tiger|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41560428|journal=Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=3|issue=1 (93)|pages=74–78|jstor=41560428 |issn=2304-7550}}</ref> In Malaysia too,{{where|date=January 2024}} Bajangs{{explain|date=January 2024}} have been described as vampiric or demonic werecats.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} The [[Kerinchi people|Kerinchi Malays]] of Sumatra were reputed to have the ability to transform into weretigers.<ref>{{cite web | last=Roux | first=Joane le | title=In pursuit of a were-tiger | website=[[New Straits Times]]  | date=2 November 2014 | url=https://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/pursuit-were-tiger | access-date=1 February 2022}}</ref>

In the central area of the Indonesian island of [[Java]], the power of transformation is regarded as due to inheritance, to the use of spells, to fasting and willpower, to the use of charms, etc. Save when it is hungry or has just cause for revenge it is not hostile to man; in fact, it is said to take its animal form only at night and to guard the plantations from wild pigs. Variants of this belief assert that the shapeshifter does not recognize his friends unless they call him by name, or that he goes out as a mendicant and transforms himself to take vengeance on those who refuse him alms. Somewhat similar is the belief of the [[Khond]]s; for them the tiger is friendly, and he reserves his [[anger|wrath]] for their enemies. A man is said to take the form of a tiger in order to wreak a just vengeance.<ref name="Thomas 1911, p. 150">{{EB1911|inline=1  |last=Thomas |first=Northcote Whitridge |author-link=Northcote Whitridge Thomas  |wstitle=Lycanthropy |volume=17 |page=150}}</ref>

===The Americas===
The foremost were-animal in pre-Columbian [[Mesoamerica]]n cultures was the [[Jaguars in Mesoamerican culture|were-jaguar]]. It was associated with the veneration of the [[jaguar]], with priests and shamans among the various peoples who followed this tradition, wearing the skins of jaguars to "become" a were-jaguar. Among the [[Aztec]]s, an entire class of specialized warriors who dressed in the jaguar skins were called "[[jaguar warrior]]s" or "jaguar knights". Depictions of the jaguar and the were-jaguar are among the most common motifs among the artifacts of the ancient Mesoamerican civilizations.{{citation needed|date=August 2018|reason=For everything from the start of the pragraph}}

[[Northcote Whitridge Thomas|N. W. Thomas]] wrote in the [[Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition|11th ed. of the ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'']] (1911) that, according to [[Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius]] (1794–1868), the ''[[Wapishana#Death|kanaima]]'' was a human being who employed poison to carry out his function of blood avenger, and that other authorities represent the ''kanaima'' as a jaguar, which was either an avenger of blood or the familiar of a cannibalistic sorcerer. He also mentioned that in 1911 some Europeans in Brazil believed that the seventh child of the same sex in unbroken succession becomes a were-man or woman, and takes the form of a horse, goat, jaguar or pig.<ref name="Thomas 1911, p. 150"/>

In the US, [[urban legend]]s tell of encounters with feline bipeds; beings similar to the [[Bigfoot]] having cat heads, tails, and paws. Feline bipeds are sometimes classified as part of [[cryptozoology]]; more often, however, they are interpreted as werecats.<ref name="felinebipedsbrad">{{cite book|last = Steiger|first = Brad|author-link = Brad Steiger|title = Out of the Dark|publisher = [[Kensington Books]]|year = 2001|pages = 154–160}}</ref>

==Occultism and theology==
Assertions that werecats truly exist and have an origin in supernatural or religious realities have been common for centuries, with these beliefs often being hard to entirely separate from folklore. In the 19th century, occultist J. C. Street asserted that material cat and dog transformations could be produced by manipulating the "ethereal fluid" that human bodies are supposedly floating in.<ref name="hameloccultwerecas">
{{cite book
 | last = Hamel
 | first = Frank
 | title = Human Animals
 | publisher = University Books
 | year = 1969
 | location = New Hyde Park
 | page = 292}}
</ref> The Catholic witch-hunting manual, the ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'', asserted that witches can turn into cats, but that their transformations are illusions created by demons.<ref name="hammerwitches">
{{cite book
 | last1 = Summers
 | first1 = Montague
 | author-link = Montague Summers
 | author2 = [[Heinrich Kramer]], [[James Sprenger]]
 | title = The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger
 | publisher = Book Tree
 | year = 2000
 | pages = 127–128
 }}
</ref> [[New Age]] author [[John Perkins (author)|John Perkins]] asserted that every person has the ability to shapeshift into "jaguars, bushes, or any other form" by using mental power.<ref name="perkinsjaguar">
{{cite book
 | last = Perkins
 | first = John
 | title = Shape Shifting
 | publisher = Destiny Books
 | year = 1997
 | location = Rochester, Vermont
 | page = 3}}
</ref> Occultist [[Rosalyn Greene]] claims that werecats called "cat shifters" exist as part of a "shifter subculture" or underground New Age religion based on lycanthropy and related beliefs.<ref name="magicshapeshiftcatshifters">
{{cite book
 | last = Greene
 | first = Rosalyn
 | title = The Magic of Shapeshifting
 | publisher = [[Red Wheel Weiser Conari|Weiser]]
 | year = 2000
 | pages = 53–89, 125, 149
 }}
</ref>

==See also==
{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* [[Anthropomorphism]]
* [[Barong (mythology)|Barongan]]
* [[Catgirl (anime and manga)|Catgirl]]
* [[:Category:Fictional werecats|Fictional werecats (category)]]
* [[Leopard Society]]
* [[Lycanthropy (disambiguation)]]
* [[Shapeshifting]]
* [[Skin-walker]]
* [[Shapeshifting|Therianthropy]]
* [[Were]]
* [[Werehyena]]
* [[Werejaguar]]
* [[Wererat]]
}}

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Borges, Jorge. (1969). ''The book of imaginary beings''. New York: E. P. Dutton. {{ISBN|0-670-89180-0}}
* Greene, Rosalyn. (2000). ''The magic of shapeshifting''. York Beach: [[Red Wheel Weiser Conari|Weiser]]. {{ISBN|1-57863-171-8}}
* Hall, Jamie. (2003). ''Half human, half animal: Tales of werewolves and related creatures''. Bloomington: 1st Books. {{ISBN|1-4107-5809-5}}
* Hamel, Frank. (1969). ''Human animals: Werewolves & other transformations''. New Hyde Park: University Books. {{ISBN|0-8216-0092-3}}
* Steiger, Brad. (2001). ''Out of the dark''. New York: Kensington Books. {{ISBN|1-57566-896-3}}
* Saunders, Nicholas J. (1991). ''The cult of the cat''. London: Thames and Hudson. {{ISBN|0-500-81036-2}}

{{Fantasy fiction}}
{{Horror fiction}}

[[Category:Mythological felines]]
[[Category:Supernatural legends]]
[[Category:Therianthropes]]