sylph

English

WOTD – 1 June 2007

Long-tailed sylph (sense 4)

Etymology

First attested in 1657. From New Latin sylphes, coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. The coinage may derive from Latin sylvestris (“of the woods”) and nympha (“nymph”). Ultimately from the root silva (“woods, forest”). Related to sylvan.

More at Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /sɪlf/
Audio (US) (file)
Rhymes: -ɪlf

Noun

sylph (plural sylphs)

(mythology) An invisible being of the air.
- 1811, Mary Brunton, Self-Control (novel):
  Her heart fluttered with expectation—her step was buoyant with hope, and she sprung into the carriage with the lightness of a sylph.
- 1941, Rupert Gleadow, Magic and Divination, page 125:
  Necromancy meant originally the conjuring up the souls of the dead, and later included the conjuring of all sorts of inhuman spirits such as sylphs, giants, and djinn.
Synonym: sylphid
The elemental being of air, usually female.
(by extension) A slender woman or girl, usually graceful and sometimes with the implication of sublime station over everyday people.
(ornithology) Any of the mainly dark green and blue hummingbirds (genus Aglaiocercus), the male of which has a long forked tail.

Related terms

sylvan (see for more terms)
savage
Silvanus

Translations

The elemental being of air

French: sylphe (fr) m, sylphide (fr) f
German: Sylphe (de) f, Luftgeist m
Italian: silfide, silfo
Polish: sylf (pl) m, sylfida (pl) f
Portuguese: silfo (pt) m, sílfide (pt) f
Spanish: sílfide (es)
Swedish: sylf (sv)

A slender girl

Bulgarian: нежна девойка (nežna devojka)
German: Sylphide (de) f (archaic)
Italian: silfide f
Polish: sylfida (pl) f
Swedish: sylfid (sv) c

References

Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN