sylph

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   in the occult system of Paracelsus and later literature, an elemental spirit of the air, usually invisible and often represented as female

   In the mock-epic poem, each sylph guards a lady's dress.

2. 2
   noun

   literary: a slender, graceful woman or girl

   The dancer seemed a sylph as she crossed the stage.

3. 3
   noun

   any of several hummingbirds of the genus Aglaiocercus, whose males have long forked tails

   A violet-tailed sylph hovered beside the flowering tree.

Simplified etymology

Sylph was formed in the mid-17th century by blending Latin sylvestris, meaning “of the woods,” with nymph.

From New Latin sylphes, coined by Paracelsus in the sixteenth century for elemental spirits of the air. Its further origin is uncertain; it has been conjecturally linked with Latin sylvestris, of the woods, and nympha, nymph. The graceful-woman and hummingbird senses extend the spirit's lightness.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary