Wolf is Old English wulf, and it is one of the most widely preserved words in the Indo-European family: Sanskrit vrkas, Lithuanian vilkas, Old Church Slavonic vluku, and probably Greek lykos and Latin lupus, all from one ancient root. A word for a dangerous animal is exactly the kind of vocabulary that survives intact for five thousand years.
The initial w marks it as native to English, since Latin and Greek roots do not begin that way. Old English used wulf for the animal and also for a wolfish person or the devil, and the word runs through Germanic personal names — a reminder of how the animal was regarded. Old Persian Varkana-, the region southeast of the Caspian, means literally "wolf-land."
wolf (n.) larger carnivorous canine of the Old World, hunting in packs, destructive to farm animals, and occasionally attacking humans; Middle English, from Old English wulf "wolf; wolfish person, devil," from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz , from PIE root *wlkwo- "wolf." This is reconstructed to also be the source of Sanskrit vrkas , Avestan vehrka- ; Albanian ul'k ; Old Church Slavonic vluku ; Russian volcica ; Lithuanian vilkas "wolf;" probably also Greek lykos , Latin lupus . Germanic cognates include Old Saxon wulf , Old Norse ulfr , Old Frisian, Dutch, Old High German, German wolf , Gothic wulfs . Old Persian Varkana- is "Hyrcania," district southeast of the Caspian Sea, literally "wolf-land;" The type of a predator, it was commonly contrasted to sheep; in reference to persons in Middle English it denotes rapacity, ferocity, one who preys on the innocent or powerless. Also a complimentary word for a warrior in Germanic given names, as Adolf , Rudolph . The animal probably was driven to extinction in England by the end of the 15th century, in Scotland by the early 18th. The U.S. gray wolf is a different and larger species. Wolves as a symbol of lust are ancient, such as Roman slang lupa "whore," literally "she-wolf" (preserved in Spanish loba , Italian lupa , French louve ). The equation of "wolf" and "prostitute, sexually voracious female" persisted ( wolfesse glosses Latin lupa late 14c.), but by Elizabethan times wolves had become primarily symbolic of male lust. The specific use of wolf for "sexually aggressive male" is attested by 1847. Colloquial wolf-whistle is attested by 1945, American English, at first associated with sailors ashore. The image of a wolf in sheep's skin is attested in English by c. 1400. This haue be feyned religiows ypocrites with here disgised clothes, þat had the lambe is skyn upon hem selffe be semyng with owt, but withinforth thei were ravisshing wolffes. ["The Pilgrimage of the Soul," early 15c.] To cry wolf "raise a false alarm" is by 1812, from the well-known moral story of the shepherd boy (attested in English by 1690s). To keep the wolf from the door "keep out hunger or want" is by late 15c. This manne can litle skyl ... to saue himself harmlesse from the perilous accidentes of this world, keping ye wulf from the doore (as they cal it). ["The Institution of a Gentleman," 1555] The wolf-spider (the European tarantula) is so called by c. 1600, for prowling and leaping on its prey rather than waiting in a web. Figurative throw (someone) to the wolves is by 1927, on the notion of putting off pursuit by sacrificing one of the pursued. wolf (v.) "eat like a wolf," 1862, from wolf (n.). Related: Wolfed ; wolfing . also from 1862
wolf came in through Old English, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| /f/ | f, the plain letter — never phfish, fire, wolf |
What gives it away on the page
| w- at the start | Latin and Greek roots essentially never begin with w.water, wind, wolf |
Placing it without the spelling
| one syllable, or two with the stress up front — blunt and concrete | Old Englishwolf, water, knee, bridge |
Old English in the spelling guide · guess another word's family