'Theriotype' is the term most commonly used to refer to the creature(s) a therianthrope identifies as. Theriotypes are any animalistic non-human creature; they can be an extinct animal (paleotherian), a fictional creature (fictherian), or even an animal that's considered mythical (theriomythic).
Therians who have more than one theriotype are known as 'polytherians', this is a common occurrence within the community. There are many different ways someone can be a polytherian (this includes genutherians, cladotherians, omnitherians, etc.).
A therian may refer to themself/their theriotype by saying "I have a wolf theriotype", "I am a wolf therian", or "I am a wolfkin" (the use of '-kin' is often tied to the term 'otherkin', which is partially an umbrella term that envelopes the therian identity).
History[]
The original idea of the term 'theriotype' can be traced back to September 19th, 1999. The actual word 'theriotype' was not used, but the idea for a replacement term was suggested. [1] However, we don't know the exact day or post where the term was used for the first time. [2]
"So, theriopneuma and theriopsyche could both be workable terms for, essentially, animal-spirit, and could both be functional replacements for "phenotype". I'm no expert of gender and declension of Greek nouns either, but I think that judging from the construction of the word theriomorphic, the "o" is correct." [1]
Previously used terms[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Were-words 2: Theriopsyche & Theriopneuma" The Temple, by Lynna Landstreet/Lynx Canadensis, originally posted to AHWW on Sep 19th 1999 - https://web.archive.org/web/20011126212149/http://wildideas.net/temple/library/letters/werewords2.html (the AHWW post mentioned is https://groups.google.com/g/alt.horror.werewolves/c/bntkSgqbLlg/m/11migqLqv5IJ)
- ↑ "A Timeline of the Therianthrope Community" by House of Chimeras, page 48, first written 21st March 2021 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jDmjl78hQ2BiQtzQMTV3yRQkrIgB9eUZ/view