merwolf

See also: mer-wolf

English

Alternative forms

• mer-wolf

Etymology

From mer- +‎ wolf.

Noun

merwolf (plural merwolves)

1. (fantasy) A mermaid wolf; a sea wolf.
   • 1994, Writers Harvest, page 21:

     When Malcolm is in the water he is transformed into the Lord of the Sea (a part-time job), and he must save his Dominion from the evil sea-wizard Nptananan who takes on many forms, his favorite being that of a merwolf with fangs like a viper.

   • 2013, Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl, St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 431:

     The Humdrum had turned the merwolves against the school, and they were crawling around, dragging their fins, getting everything wet and gnashing their teeth at little kids, and then Penelope Bunce, the hero of our story, cast a spell that made the clouds rain silver—

   • 2013, Frank Lesser, Sad Monsters: Growling on the Outside, Crying on the Inside, →ISBN:

     Merwolf: On full moons, this creature transforms into a vicious wolf with the lower body of a fish. On other nights it is just a regular wolf, furiously dog-paddling in the ocean.

   • 2016, Richard Foreman, Wilful Misunderstandings, Lepus Books:

     A short drive down to a resort on the south coast and a chat with a woman who has had a Merwolf encounter. That'll be a new one for me. Merwolves... Amphibians, obviously. I’ve heard they have razor sharp teeth.

   • 2018, Will Oldham, “Love Streams”, in Songs of Love and Horror: Collected Lyrics of Will Oldham, →ISBN:

     love is a stream that sometimes flows inside of me / first it’s black and then it’s green / a merwolf’s dream

   • 2020, Shivaun Plozza, chapter 2, in The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 22:

     “Maledian merwolf hair?” suggested Galvin, waving his hand over a clear pouch bulging with coarse blue hair.

   • 2021, P. Benjamin Mains, The Phoenix Rises: Beyond Imagination, number 1, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 235:

     This “merwolf” used the claws of its webbed paws to scale the strut.