The reason for the disconnect is that "wer" is an Old English term for "man" which has pretty much only survived with "werewolf," so we now associate the "were" part with transforming into something.

[–] Justas@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago

Fun fact: "wer" evolved into "vyras" and is still used in Lithuanian language, but Lithuanian word for werewolf is "vilkolakis" and does not include the word.

One origin of werewolves also comes from Baltic shamanic practices of communicating with wolves and sometimes "turning" into them.

[–] egrets@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

pretty much only survived with "werewolf,"

There's no other English word in the whole world that comes from wer? 😉

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago

I said "pretty much" because I assumed it was in there somewhere else. I never knew "world" had roots with it!

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Meme still doesn't make sense

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It does as a pun.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Warehouse/werehouse "works" as a pun out of context, sure. In context though, it's supposed to be the punchline for this joke, but it isn't.