Fairies
good and bad.
AFREET or EFREET, one of the Jinn tribe, of which there are five.
(See Story of the Second Calendar.) APPARITION. A ghost.
ARIEL. (See Ariel.)
BANSHEE or BENSHEE, an Irish fairy attached to a house. (See
Banshee.) BOGGART. (Scotch.) A local hobgoblin or spirit.
BOGIE or BOGLE, a bugbear (Scotch form of bug). (See
Bogie.) BROWNIE, a Scotch domestic fairy; the servants friend if well
treated. (See Brownie.) BUG or BUGBEAR, any imaginary thing that
frightens a person. (Welsh, bwg. (See Bug.) CAULD LAD (
The), the Brownie of Hilton Hall. (See Cauld Lad.)
DJINN, JIN, or GINN (Arabian).(See Jinn.)
DUENDE (3 syl.), a Spanish house-spirit.(See Duende.) DWARE,
a diminutive being, human or superhuman. (Anglo-Saxon, dweorg.)
DWERGER, DWERGUGH, or DUERGAR, Gotho-German dwarfs, dwelling in rocks
and hills. (Anglo-Saxon,dweorgh.)
ELF (plu. ELVES), fairies of diminutive size, supposed to be fond of
practical jokes. (Anglo-Saxon, ælf. (See Elf.)
ELLE-MAID or ELLE-WOMAN, ELLE-FOLK, of Scandinavia.
ESPRIT FOLLET, the house-spirit of France.
FAIRY or FAERIE (plu. FAIRIES), a supernatural being, fond of
pranks, but generally pleasing. (German and French, fee.)
FAMILIAR (A, an evil spirit attendant on witches, etc. (
See Familiar.) FATA, an Italian fay, or white lady.
FATES, the three spirits (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos) which
preside over the destiny of every individual. (Latin, fata.)
FAY (plu. FAYS), same as Fairy (q.v..)
FEAR DEARG (The), i.e. Red Man. A house-spirit of
Munster. GENII (plu.). The sing. genie and genius.
Eastern spirits, whether good or bad, who preside over a man or nation.
“He is my evil [or good] genius.” (Latin, genius. (See
Genius.)
GHOST, the immaterial body or noumenon of a human being. Supposed to
be free to visit the earth at night-time, but obliged to return to its
Hades at the first dawn.
GHOUL, a demon that feeds on the dead. (Persian.)
GNOME (1 syl.), the guardian of mines, quarries, etc. (Greek,
gnóme a Cabalistic being.) (See Gnomes.) GOBLIN or
HOBGOBLIN, a phantom spirit. (French, gobelin; German,
kobold.)
GOOD FOLK (The). The Brownies or house-spirits.
GUARDIAN-ANGEL, an angelic spirit which presides over the destiny
of each individual. HABUNDIA, queen of the White Ladies.
HAG (A), a female fury. Milton (Comus 445) speaks of
“blue meagre hags.” H AMADRYAD, a wood-nymph. Each tree has its own
wood-nymph, who dies when the tree dies. HOBGOBLIN. (See above,
GOBLIN.) Hob is Robin,as Hodge is Roger.
HORNS or HORNIE, the Devil. (See Hornie.)
IMP, a puny demon or spirit of mischief. (Welsh, imp.)
JACK-A-LANTERN, a bog or marsh spirit who delights to mislead. JINN
or GINN. (See Jinn.) These Arabian spirits were formed of
“smokeless fire.” KELPIE (2 syl.). In Scotland, an imaginary spirit of
the waters in the form of a horse. (See Kelpie.) KOBOLD, a
German household goblin, also frequenting mines. (German, kobold.
) (See Kobold.)
LAMIA (plu. LAMIÆ), a hag or demon. Keats's Lamia is a serpent which
had assumed the form of a beautiful woman, beloved by a young man, and
gets a soul. (Latin, Lamia.) (See Lamies.)
LAMIES, African spectres, having the head of a woman and tail of a
serpent. (See Lamia.) LAR (plu. LARES) (2 syl.), Latin household
deities. (See Lares.)
LEPRECHAUN, a fairy shoemaker.
MAB, the faries' midwife. Sometimes incorrectly called queen of the
fairies. (Welsh, mab.) (See Mab.) MANDRAKE. (See
Mandrake.)
MERMAID, a sea-spirit, the upper part a woman and the lower half a
fish. MERROWS, both male and female, are spirits of the sea, of human
shape from the waist upwards, but from the waist downwards are like a
fish. The females are attractive, but the males have green teeth, green
hair, pig's eyes, and red noses. Fishermen dread to meet them.
MONACIELLO or LITTLE MONK, a house-spirit of Naples.
NAIAD (plu. NAIADES [3 syl.] or NAIADS [2 syl.]), water-nymphs.
(Latin.) (See Naiads.) NIS or NISSE (2 syl.), a Kobold or
Brownie. A Scandinavian fairy friendly to farmhouses. (Contraction of
Nicolaus.)
NIX (female, NIXIE), a water-spirit. The nix has green
teeth, and wears a green hat; the nixie is very beautiful.
OBERON, king of the fairies.
OGRE [pronounce og'r], an inhabitant of fairyland said to
feed on infant children. (French.) OREADS, mountain nymphs. (Greek,
oros.)
OUPHE (2 syl.), a fairy or goblin.
PERI, a Persian fairy. Evil peris are called “Deevs.” PIGWIDGEON, a
fairy of very diminutive size.
PIXY or PIXIE (also pisgy, pisgie), a Devonshire fairy, same
as Puck. POUKE (1 syl.), same as Puck. (See Pouke.)
PUCK, a merry little fairy spirit, full of fun and harmless
mischief. (Icelandic and Swedish, puke.) (See Puck.)
ROBIN- GOODFELLOW, another name for PUCK. (See Robin ...)
SALAMANDER, a spirit which lives in fire. (Latin and Greek,
salamandra.) (See Salamandra.) SHADES, ghosts.
SPECTRE, a ghost,
SPOOK (in Theosophy), an elemental.
SPRITE, a spirit.
STROMKARL, a Norwegian musical spirit, like Neck. (See
Stromkarl.) SYLPH, a spirit of the air; so named by the Rosicrucians
and Cabalists. (Greek, silphe, French, sylphide.) (See
Sylphs.)
TRITON, a sea deity, who dwells with Father Neptune in a golden
palace at the bottom of the sea. The chief employment of tritons is to
blow a conch to smooth the sea when it is ruffled.
TROLL, a hill-spirit. Hence Trolls are called Hill-people or
Hill-folk, supposed to be immensely rich, and especially dislike
noise. (See Trolls.)
UNDINE (2 syl.), a water-nymph. (Latin, unda.) (See
Undine.) URCHIN properly means a hedgehog, and is applied to
mischievous children and small folk generally. (See Urchin.)
VAMPIRE (2 syl.), the spirit of a dead man that haunts a house and
sucks the blood of the living. A Hungarian superstition. (See
Vampire.)
WERE-WOLF (Anglo-Saxon, wer-wulf, man-wolf), a human
being, sometimes in one form and sometimes in another. (See
WereWolf.)
WHITE LADIES OF NORMANDY. (See White Ladies.)
WHITE LADY (The) of the royal family of Prussia. A “spirit”
said to appear before the death of one of the family. (See White
Lady.)
WHITE LADY OF AVENEL (2 syl.), a tutelary spirit.
WHITE LADY OF IRELAND (The, the banshee or domestic spirit of
a family.) WHITE MERLE (The), of the old Basques. A white fairy
bird, which, by its singing, restored sight to the blind.)
WIGHT, any human creature, as a “Highland wight.” Dwarfs and all
other fairy creatures. WILL-O'-THE-WISP, a spirit of the bogs, whose
delight is to mislead belated travellers.
WRAITH (Scotch), the ghost of a person shortly about to die or just
dead, which appears to survivors, sometimes at a great distance off. (
See Wraith, Household Spirits.)
Fairies
are the dispossessed spirits which once inhabited human bodies,
but are not yet meet to dwell with the “saints in light.”
All those airy shapes you now behold
Were human bodies once, and clothed with earthly mould;
Our souls, not yet prepared for upper light,
Till doomsday wander in the shades of night.
Dryden: The Flower and the Leaf.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Fairies from Infoplease:
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