nerd

→ Dutch: nerd

→ Faroese: nørdur

→ Finnish: nörtti

→ Icelandic: nörd

→ Norwegian Bokmål: nerd

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: nerd

→ Polish: nerd

→ Portuguese: nerd

→ Spanish: nerd

→ Swedish: nörd

→ Turkish: nörd

Unknown. Attested since 1951 as US student slang.
* Perhaps an alteration of nerts (“nuts", "crazy”); see references below.
* The word, capitalized, appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo as the name of an imaginary animal:
*: And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Katroo / And bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker too!
* Possibly a rebracketing of inert as a nert, as in he's inert = he's a nerd, in reference to one's lack of competence or athletic ability.
* Various unlikely folk etymologies and less likely backronymic speculations also exist.

(informal, sometimes derogatory) A member of a subculture revolving around intellectualism, technology, video games, fantasy and science fiction, comic books and assorted media. [from 1980s]


chupacabras

→ English: chupacabra, chupacabras

Verb-object compound, composed of chupa (“to suck”) + cabras (“goats”), literally “goatsucker”.


Eeyore

From the donkey in A.A. Milne's books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, whose name is onomatopoeic from a donkey's bray (compare hee-haw).

SVEN nods toward SNORRI THE MISERABLE - an Eeyore of a Viking if ever there were one.

1989, Terry Jones, Erik the Viking, Hal Leonard Corporation, published 1990, →ISBN, page 39:

Ecclesiastes, who sometimes seems to cast himself as the Eeyore of the Old Testament, would simply shrug his shoulders and tell you to make the best of what you had.

2003, The Resurrection of the Son of God, volume 3, of Christian origins and the question of God, Nicholas Thomas Wright, Fortress Press, →ISBN, page 108:

You can't succeed as a Pollyanna or an Eeyore in the Product Management role — the glass is neither half full nor half empty, simply something that must eventually be washed.

2008, Steven Haines, The Product Manager's Desk Reference, McGraw-Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 99:

(figuratively) An excessively negative or pessimistic person.


centaur

From Latin centaurus, from Ancient Greek κένταυρος (kéntauros), from Κένταυρος (Kéntauros, “a member of a savage race from Thessaly”).

(Greek mythology) A mythical beast having a horse's body with a man's head and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse.


centaur

centaur (nominative singular)
centaury (nominative plural)
centaura (genitive singular)
centaurów (genitive plural)
centaurowi (dative singular)
centaurom (dative plural)
centaura (accusative singular)
centaury (accusative plural)
centaurem (instrumental singular)
centaurami (instrumental plural)
centaurze (locative singular)
centaurach (locative plural)
centaurze (singular vocative)
centaury (plural vocative)

(Greek mythology) centaur (mythical half-man, half-horse)


carrier

но́сьбіт

And each was hideously powerful: an attack carrier could destroy a world, a force of cruisers and spinship destroyers could destroy a sun.

1990, Dan Simmons, The Fall of Hyperion, 1st edition, New York: Doubleday, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 114:

The first carrier completely ignored us, sir! Blew through the Malta’s debris field and headed straight for Earth!

2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, spoken by Cortana (Jen Taylor), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: Cairo Station:

In fleet combat, carriers stay clear of battle, launching fighters bearing disruptor torpedoes. Fighters are the primary striking power of the ship; if a carrier enters mass accelerator range of the enemy, things have gone very wrong.
It is possible to recover and rearm fighters during combat, though most carriers seal the flight deck and try to stay out of the way. The flight deck is essentially a corridor through the armor and into the heart of the vessel. A single well-placed torpedo is enough to gut a carrier.
Alliance carriers are named after great leaders, artists, and intellectuals from human history.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Starships: Carriers Codex entry:

aircraft carrier
aircraft carrier#English

A person or object that carries someone or something else.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship designed to carry starfighters


raw

From Middle English rawe, raw, rau, from Old English hrēaw (“raw, uncooked”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrau, from Proto-Germanic *hrawaz, *hrēwaz (“raw”), from Proto-Indo-European *krewh₂- (“raw meat, fresh blood”).
Cognate with Scots raw (“raw”), Dutch rauw (“raw”), German roh (“raw”), Swedish rå (“raw”), Icelandic hrár (“raw”), Latin crūdus (“raw, bloody, uncooked”), Irish cró (“blood”), Lithuanian kraujas (“blood”), Russian кровь (krovʹ, “blood”). Related also to Old English hrēow, hrēoh (“rough, fierce, wild, angry, disturbed, troubled, sad, stormy, tempestuous”). More at ree.

der

(anime fandom slang) A recording or rip of a show that has not been fansubbed.

生肉

anime fandom: a recording or rip that has not been fansubbed

(manga fandom slang) A scan that has not been cleaned (purged of blemishes arising from the scanning process) and has not been scanlated.

生肉

manga fandom: a scan that has not been cleaned and scanlated


basilisk

From Middle English basilicke, borrowed from Old French basilique, from Latin basiliscus, from Ancient Greek βασιλίσκος (basilískos) (literally "minor king or chieftain", possibly based on descriptions or rare encounters with different types of cobra which have crown-like patterns on their head; the "deadly gaze" could have been from the spitting cobra's ability to spit venom into the eyes of predators or prey from a distance), from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”). The cognitohazard/infohazard sense is by analogy with the deadly gaze of the mythical creature.

the deadly look of the basilisk

The queſtion is in vvhat part of this Serpent the poyſon doth lye; Some ſay in the head alone, and that therefore the Bazeliske is deafe, bycauſe the Ayre vvhich ſerueth the Organe of hearing, is reſolued by the intenſiue calidity: but this ſeemeth not to bee true, […]

1608, Edward Topsell, “Of the Cockatrice”, in The Historie of Serpents. Or, The Second Booke of Liuing Creatures: […], London: […] William Jaggard, →OCLC, page 124:

And without more ado she […] fixed her wonderful eyes upon me - more deadly than any Basilisk's - and pierced me through and through with their beauty, and sent her light laugh ringing through the air like chimes of silver bells.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

As a revolutionary act of prophecy in an age of political science, Wissenkunst is a unique and anarchic expression of freedom, and not a new and aspiring system of indoctrination. If Wissenkunst is itself turned into political apologetics, then the fabulous plumed serpent is turned into a monster, a basilisk.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 249:

(mythology) A mythical snake-like dragon, so venomous that even its gaze is deadly.

A basilisk, in this context, is information that can hurt you simply because you are aware of it.

2019 June 13, Tom Chivers, The AI Does Not Hate You, Orion Publishing Group, →ISBN:

(science fiction) An infohazard or cognitohazard, especially a Langford's basilisk.


succubus

Alteration in Middle English (based on incubus m) of Late Latin succuba (“strumpet, especially a mythological fiend in female form who has intercourse with men in their sleep”), from Latin succubo (“to lie under”), from sub- (“under”) + cubare (“to lie down”).

Coordinate term: incubus

1977 Italo Calvino, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, Part 2, Chapter 5, 1969. Translated from Italian by William Weaver.
When the Sabbath is caught by the first ray of the rising sun, all the witches and the vampires, incubi and succubi, take flight, some transforming themselves into noctules, some into other bats, some into still other species of Chiroptera.

(mediaeval folklore) A female demon which comes to men, especially monks, in their dreams to seduce them and have sexual intercourse, drawing energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death.


work of fiction

en-noun

work of fiction (plural works of fiction)


idiot

From Middle English idiote, ydiote, from Old French idiote (later idiot), from Latin idiota, from Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs, “a private citizen, one who has no professional knowledge, layman”), from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, pertaining to oneself, private”). Doublet of idiota.

der

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class IV § 450a. Absence of intellect

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class IV § 499. Imbecility

Idiots were thought to be peculiarly under the care of the Deity, and it was believed that those who treated them kindly would be blessed.

1896, Clifton Johnson, “Folks”, in What They Say in New England (non-fiction), Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Lee and Shepard Publishers, page 105:

It is an offence for a man to have unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman whom he knows to be an idiot or imbecile.

1956, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Part I, section 7”, in Sexual Offences Act 1956, page 2:

(obsolete, medicine, psychology) A person of the lowest intellectual standing, a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal four-year-old; a person with an IQ below 30.


incubus

From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubō (“nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper”), from incubō (“to lie upon, to hatch”, from in- (“on”) + cubō (“to lie down”)).

it increaseth fearful dreams, incubus, night-walking, crying out, and much unquietness […] .

Burton with W.H. Gass, The Anatomy of Melancholy, NYRB Classics ser. (New York: New York Review Books, 2001, orig. 1932), vol. 1, p. 249

A feeling of oppression during sleep, sleep paralysis; night terrors, a nightmare.


leviathan

From Middle English levyethan, levyathan, etc., from Late Latin leviathan, a transliteration of Biblical Hebrew לִוְיָתָן (liv'yatán).

Canſt thou dravv out Leuiathan vvith an hooke? or his tongue vvith a corde vvhich thou letteſt dovvne?

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 41:1, column 1:

The fog seemed to break away as though split by a wedge, and the bow of a steamboat emerged, trailing fog-wreaths on either side like seaweed on the snout of Leviathan.

1904, Jack London, chapter 1, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:

(biblical, mythology) A vast sea monster of tremendous strength, described as the most powerful and dangerous creature in the ocean.


unicorn

From Middle English unicorne, unikorn, from Anglo-Norman unicorne, Old French unicorne, and their source, Latin ūnicornis, from ūnus (“one”) + cornū (“horn”). Other senses from either rarity (e.g., possessing multiple skills) or by physical resemblance to having a horn (e.g., howitzer). The finance sense was coined by American investor Aileen Lee and first used in a 2013 article.

God brought him forth out of Egypt, he hath as it were the ſtrength of an Vnicorne: he ſhall eate vp the nations his enemies, and ſhall breake their bones, and pierce them thorow with his arrowes.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 24:8, column 1:

רְאֵם ראם#Hebrew

(historical) In various Bible translations, used to render the Latin unicornis or rhinoceros (representing Hebrew רְאֵם): a reem or wild ox.

Any large beetle having a horn-like prominence on the head or prothorax, especially the Hercules beetle, Dynastes tityus.

But I also think, “They’re looking for a unicorn — a magical designer who can solve all their problems.” It’s too bad unicorns don’t exist. … I have never met a designer who is an expert in all those skill areas. … Even if you find a unicorn designer with all those skills, actually doing all those things at your company is a huge amount of work.

2011 November 1, Braden Kowitz, “Hiring a designer: hunting the unicorn”, in Google Ventures:

He believes that good data scientists, “otherwise known as unicorn data scientists,” have three types of expertise.

2015 October 3, Gil Press, “These Are The Skills You Need To (Eventually) Become A $240,000+ Unicorn Data Scientist”, in Forbes:

en:someone or something rare and hard to find

en:person with so much multidisciplinary expertise as to be rare

Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.

(business) A person with multidisciplinary expertise, especially a laundry list of three or more skills in a young field such as UX design or data science (e.g., domain knowledge, statistics, and software engineering).

Coordinate term: decacorn

As the price of Web hosting plummeted and PCs and cell phones proliferated, college and grad-school dropouts like Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page and Sergey Brin could suddenly conjure unicorns on their laptops.

2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker:

In May 2016, out of 163 global unicorns, China had 31, with a total valuation of $154 billion or about 26 percent of global unicorn valuation.

2017, Pongsak Hoontrakul, Economic Transformation and Business Opportunities in Asia, Springer, →ISBN, page 273:

(finance) A startup company whose valuation has exceeded one billion U.S. dollars, which is solely backed by venture capitalists, and which has yet to have an IPO.


unicorn

en-verb

unicorn (third-person singular simple present unicorns, present participle unicorning, simple past and past participle unicorned)

unicorns (present singular third-person)
unicorning (participle present)
unicorned (participle past)
unicorned (past)

Since Waze, Soluto and Onavo, both Israeli startups, have had great exits in consumer tech, and Wix “unicorned” through its IPO.

2014 November 3, Itay Hod, “The Airbnb of Home-Cooked Meals”, in Daily Beast:

For eager investors looking to score in a future IPO, the eight still-private martech unicorns might be tempting. That list includes Domo, Slack, Sprinklr, Shopify, and EventBrite, all of which have “unicorned,” or surpassed the billion-dollar valuation mark, in the past year or two.

2015 April 30, John Koetsier, “29 martech unicorns: There are now almost 30 $1B+ marketing technology vendors”, in Venture Beat:

For instance, at the same time as Intercom was announcing its unicorning moment, a young Dublin tech company called Let's Get Checked (letsgetchecked.com) raised €10m in a funding round.

2018 April 1, Adrian Weckler, “Admit it: Irish tech is on the up”, in The Independent:

(finance) To exceed a valuation of one billion U.S. dollars, while solely backed by venture capitalists.


lupo

For Vulgar Latin *lūpus instead of the attested Latin lupus (which would have given the non-existent **lopo), also reflected by Piedmontese luv, perhaps imitative of the wolf's howling. Doublet of lupus and lovo.

onomatopoeic

imitative


dandy

→ Dutch: dandy

→ Esperanto: dando

→ Finnish: dandy

→ French: dandy

→ German: Dandy

desc

→ Japanese: ダンディ, ダンディー

→ Japanese: ダンディ, ダンディー

→ Limburgish: dèndie

→ Polish: dandy

→ Spanish: dandy

Borrowed from Scots dandy (“a fop; one who is well-dressed”). Of uncertain origin.
Possibly from Dandy, a diminutive of Andrew, yet the Scots word is used also in reference to women. Alternatively, possibly a back-formation of Scots dandilly, dandillie (“one who is spoiled or pampered; a "pet"”). Compare English dandle and dander.


nympha

la-noun

nympha f (genitive nymphae); first declension

nymphae (genitive)
nympha (nominative singular)
nymphae (nominative plural)
nymphae (genitive singular)
nymphārum (genitive plural)
nymphae (dative singular)
nymphīs (dative plural)
nympham (accusative singular)
nymphās (accusative plural)
nymphā (ablative singular)
nymphīs (ablative plural)
nympha (singular vocative)
nymphae (plural vocative)

Asturian: ninfa

Catalan: nimfa

desctree

Old French: nimphe
French: nymphe
→ Middle Dutch: nymphe
Dutch: nimf
→ Middle English: nimphe, nymphe, nemphe
English: nymph

Italian: ninfa

Portuguese: ninfa

Romanian: nimfă

Sicilian: ninfa

Spanish: ninfa

Welsh: nymff

Derived from Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride, nymph”). Compare with Latin lympha.

der+

(Greek mythology) nymph (mythical demigoddess)


maniac

→ Cebuano: manyak, manyakis

→ Malay: maniak

→ Tagalog: manyak, manyakis

From mania + -ac. Borrowed from French maniaque, from Late Latin maniacus, from Ancient Greek μανιακός (maniakós), adjectival form of μανία (manía, “madness”). Doublet of manic.


nymph

From Middle English nimphe, from Old English nymphē and Old French nimphe, both from Latin nympha (“nymph, bride”), from Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride”). Doublet of nympha.

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Any female nature spirit associated with water, forests, grotto, wind, etc.

нимфа

mythology: water, forest or mountain spirit


ghost

en-noun

ghost (countable and uncountable, plural ghosts)

→ Japanese: ゴースト (gōsuto)

Inherited from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst (which was the word for “spirit” as well as “ghost”; the original sense survives in Modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, derived from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”).
The ⟨h⟩ in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton's Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the ‘Holy Ghoost’, likely introduced by Caxton's assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, as a result of Flemish influence, where it was spelled gheest at the time. Doublet of geist.

Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.

The mighty ghosts of our great Harries rose.

1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

I thought that I had died in sleep/And was a blessed ghost

1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere:

For a moment I was puzzled, but presently, of course, it struck me that he must have seen Ayesha, wrapped in her grave-like garment, and been deceived by the extraordinary undulating smoothness of her walk into a belief that she was a white ghost gliding towards him.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:

The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.

The proof is well known, and independent of the metric, but to make certain we prove it here also for the case when the state vector system of an operator contains multipole^([sic]) ghosts.

1966, Kàzmèr L. Nagy, State Vector Spaces with Indefinite Metric in Quantum Field Theory, page 14:

Soon after, the proof of the No-Ghost Theorem, establishing that the DRM has no ghosts if d ≤ 26, was achieved independently by Brower (1972) and by Goddard and Thorn (1972).

2019, Radin Dardashti, Richard Dawid, Karim Thébault, Why Trust a Theory?, page 180:

(quantum mechanics) An unphysical state in a gauge theory.

Spicy or mild, lovely bells or scary ghosts, peppers belong in your garden. Not only are they delicious, they add a gorgeous pop of color to vegetable gardens. When starting pepper seeds, consider using a heat mat.

2018 October 2, Julie Thompson-Adolf, Starting & Saving Seeds: Grow the Perfect Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, and Flowers for Your Garden, Cool Springs Press, →ISBN, page 68:

Fresh chili has a glossy smooth skin like a bell pepper...unless you're in scorching territory, with the likes of Ghosts or Reapers (their name should give the game away), where the skin looks [wrinkled].

2022 July 5, Alice Zaslavsky, In Praise of Veg: The Ultimate Cookbook for Vegetable Lovers, Appetite by Random House, →ISBN:


ghost

en-verb

ghost (third-person singular simple present ghosts, present participle ghosting, simple past and past participle ghosted)

ghosts (present singular third-person)
ghosting (participle present)
ghosted (participle past)
ghosted (past)

Whenever a menu or menu item is inappropriate or unavailable for selection, it should be ghosted. Never allow the user to select something that does nothing in response.

1991, Amiga User Interface Style Guide, page 76:

graphical user interface
graphical user interface

(graphical user interface) To gray out (a visual item) to indicate that it is unavailable.

kiszürkít

graphical user interface: to gray out (a visual item) to indicate that it is unavailable — see also gray out


credit

en-noun

credit (countable and uncountable, plural credits)

Borrowed from Middle French crédit (“belief, trust”), from Latin crēditum (“a loan, credit”), neuter of crēditus, past participle of crēdere (“to believe”). The verb is from the noun. Doublet of shraddha, creed.

To repair your star cruiser will cost 100,000 credits.

Aside from the fact that she means nearly ten million credits investment, which no one will insure on this trip, there will necessarily be seventy-three men aboard.

1934 December, John W. Campbell, Jr., “The Mightiest Machine”, in Astounding Stories, volume XIV, number 4, Street & Smith, page 12:

The standard credit was established by the Citadel's Unified Banking Act as the currency of interstellar trade. The credit has a managed floating exchange rate, calculated in real time by the central bank to maintain the average value of all participating currencies. Some regional currencies are worth more than a credit and some less.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Credits ("Creds") Codex entry:

"First the Patrons wipe-out our home world, now you blow any chance of us making any credits," Kane said in his gruff sinking voice.

2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 19:

(science fiction) A unit of currency used in a fictional universe or timeframe.


portal

From Middle English portal, porttol, from Old French portal and Medieval Latin portāle, from porta.

jet bridge

elevated corridor permitting access to a plane from an airport

(science fiction and fantasy) A magical or technological doorway leading to another location, period in time or dimension.


portal

en-verb

portal (third-person singular simple present portals, present participle portaling or portalling, simple past and past participle portaled or portalled)

portals (present singular third-person)
portaling (participle present)
portalling (participle present)
portaled (participle past)
portaled (past)
portalled (participle past)
portalled (past)

(science fiction, fantasy) To use a portal (magical or technological doorway).


portal

pl-noun

portal m inan (related adjective portalowy)

portalowy (adjective)
portal (nominative singular)
portale (nominative plural)
portalu (genitive singular)
portali (genitive plural)
portalów (genitive plural)
portalowi (dative singular)
portalom (dative plural)
portal (accusative singular)
portale (accusative plural)
portalem (instrumental singular)
portalami (instrumental plural)
portalu (locative singular)
portalach (locative plural)
portalu (singular vocative)
portale (plural vocative)

Borrowed from German Portal. Sense 4 is a semantic loan from English portal.

sl

(fantasy, science fiction) portal (magical or technological doorway leading to another location, period in time, or dimension)


rogue

en-adj

rogue (comparative more rogue, superlative most rogue)

more rogue (comparative)
most rogue (superlative)

Uncertain. From either:
* Earlier English roger (“a begging vagabond who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge”), possibly from Latin rogō (“I ask”).
* Middle French rogue (“arrogant, haughty”), from Old Northern French rogre (“aggressive”), from Old Norse hrokr (“excess, exuberance”), for which see Icelandic hroki (“arrogance”), though OED does not document this.
* Celtic; see Breton rog (“haughty”).

der

(by extension) Large, destructive and unpredictable.


fool

full (accents with FOOT-GOOSE merger or full-fool merger)

From Middle English fole (“fool”), from Old French fol (cf. modern French fou (“mad”)) from Latin follis. Doublet of follis and folly. Displaced native Old English dwæs.

(literature) A stock character typified by unintelligence, naïveté or lucklessness, usually as a form of comic relief; often used as a source of insight or pathos for the audience, as such characters are generally less bound by social expectations.


imp

From Middle English impe, ympe (“tree branch; shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling; tree”) [and other forms], from Old English impa, impe (“shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling”), from impian, ġeimpian (“to graft”) (see etymology 1).

"Yes, there are a great, great many coming after us; at least a score," said the lad.—"Well, that's the troll," said the horse; "he is coming after us with his imps."

1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “The Widow’s Son”, in H[ans] L[ien] Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log: Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 218:

It was as if there were little imps dancing in my mouth, and every so often, when a situation arose, they'd get together, giggle wickedly, and try to push words out of my open mouth.

1981 December 1, Ruth Geller, “The Lesbian Teacher”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 20, page 5:

(chiefly fiction and mythology) A small, mischievous sprite or a malevolent supernatural creature, somewhat comparable to a demon but smaller and less powerful, formerly regarded as the child of the devil or a demon (see sense 3.2).

чарцяня́

Concourſe, and noiſe, and toil, he ever fled; / Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray / Of ſquabbling imps; but to the foreſt ſped, / Or roam'd at large the lonely mountain's head; […]

1771, James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the First, London: […] E[dward] & C[harles] Dilly, […]; Edinburgh: A[lexander] Kincaid and W[illiam] Creech; and J[ohn] Bell, […], →OCLC, stanza XIX, page 10:

[…] I've left my young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist, ma'am; […]

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “The Further Adventures of Toad”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 221:

(by extension)
(often humorous) A mischievous child.

(British, colloquial) A supporter (or less commonly, a player) of the Lincoln City Football Club.


imp

(video games, slang) Synonym of god (“person who owns and runs a multi-user dungeon”)


dragon

→ Fijian: drekoni

→ Japanese: ドラゴン (doragon)

desc

→ Korean: 드래곤 (deuraegon), 드래건 (deuraegeon)

→ Marathi: ड्रॅगन (ḍrĕgan)

→ Marshallese: tūrāikōn

→ Niuean: tarākoni

→ Swahili: dragoni

→ Tamil: டிராகன் (ṭirākaṉ)

→ Yoruba: dírágónì

From Middle English dragoun, borrowed from Old French dragon, from Latin dracō(n), from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “a serpent of huge size, a python, a dragon”), probably from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “I see clearly”). Displaced native Old English draca—a doublet of dragon, as are Draco, dracone, and dragoon.

taniwha

Maori mythological creature similar to a dragon

These tapestries were magnificently figured with golden dragons; and as the serpentine bodies gleamed and shimmered in the increasing radiance, each dragon, I thought, intertwined its glittering coils more closely with those of another.

1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter XIII, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu:

A legendary serpentine or reptilian creature.

In Eastern Asian mythologies, a large, snake-like monster with the eyes of a hare, the horns of a stag and the claws of a tiger, usually beneficent.

An animal of various species that resemble a dragon in appearance:

Any of various agamid lizards of the genera Draco, Physignathus or Pogona.

My father compounded with my mother vnder the Dragons taile, and my nativity was vnder Vrsa Maior.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

(astronomy, with definite article, often capitalized) The constellation Draco.

Daemons and Dragons. The print spooler is an example of a DAEMON, a program that executes in the background and provides a service […] Strictly speaking, a dragon is a daemon that is not invoked explicitly but is always there, waiting in the background […]

1995, Harley Hahn, The UNIX Companion, page 420:

Many of the postmaster functions are actually handled by computer software such as dragons and mailer daemons.

2018, J. K. Petersen, Fiber Optics Illustrated Dictionary:

(computing, rare) A background process similar to a daemon.


dragon

fr-noun

dragon m (plural dragons, feminine dragonne)

→ Albanian: dragun

→ Armenian: դրագուն (dragun)

→ Azerbaijani: draqun

→ Bashkir: драгун (dragun)

→ Belarusian: драгун (drahun)

→ Breton: dragun

→ Bulgarian: драгун (dragun)

→ Catalan: dragon

→ Cebuano: dragun

→ Crimean Tatar: dragun

→ Czech: dragoun

→ Danish: dragon

→ English: dragoon

→ Esperanto: dragono

→ Estonian: tragun

→ Gagauz: dragun

→ Georgian: დრაგუნი (draguni)

→ German: Dragoner
→ Dutch: dragonder

→ Greek: δραγόνος (dragónos)

→ Hebrew: דרגון (dragún)

→ Hungarian: dragonyos

→ Icelandic: dragoní

→ Ido: dragono

→ Irish: dragún

→ Japanese: ドラグーン (doragūn)

→ Kazakh: драгун (dragun)

→ Kyrgyz: драгун (dragun)

→ Latvian: dragūns

→ Lithuanian: dragūnas

→ Macedonian: драгун (dragun)

→ Mongolian: драгун (dragun)

→ Norwegian: dragon

→ Occitan: dragon

→ Polish: dragon

→ Romanian: dragon

→ Russian: драгун (dragun)

→ Carpathian Rusyn: драґун (dragun)

→ Serbo-Croatian: dragun / драгун

→ Slovak: dragún

→ Slovene: dragonec

→ Spanish: dragón

→ Swedish: dragon
→ Finnish: rakuuna

→ Tagalog: dragun

→ Tajik: драгун (dragun)

→ Tatar: драгун (drağun)

→ Turkish: dragon

→ Turkmen: dragun

→ Ukrainian: драгун (drahun)

→ Uzbek: dragun

→ Waray-Waray: dragun

→ Welsh: dragŵn

→ Zazaki: dragun

Inherited from Old French dragon, perhaps borrowed from Old Occitan dragon, from Latin dracō, from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn). Doublet of drac.


dragon

dragoni (plural)
dragon (accusative indefinite nominative singular)
dragonul (accusative definite nominative singular)
dragoni (accusative indefinite nominative plural)
dragonii (accusative definite nominative plural)
dragon (indefinite singular)
dragonului (definite singular)
dragoni (indefinite plural)
dragonilor (definite plural)
dragonule (singular vocative)
dragonilor (plural vocative)

Borrowed from French dragon, from Latin dracō, dracōnem. Doublet of the inherited drac (“devil”).

(astronomy, often capitalized, with definite articulation) Draco (constellation)


dragon

Borrowed from Spanish dragón, from Latin dracōnem, from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “serpent, dragon”).


Sleeping Beauty

en-proper noun

Sleeping Beauty (plural Sleeping Beauties)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Sleeping Beauty.wav

In the genetics sense, so called because the transposon was brought back to activity from a long evolutionary sleep.

A fairy tale originally titled La Belle au bois dormant by Charles Perrault.

How far have we come since the days of our favorite childhood fairy tales if women still need a rescuer like the Cinderellas, Sleeping Beauties, and other helpless maidens of the past?

2012, Vera Sonja Maass, Finding Love That Lasts: Breaking the Pattern of Dead End Relationships, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 81:

Womanly duties, as Joan thought of them, were fine for girls who imagined themselves as Cinderellas or Sleeping Beauties, good girls rewarded for menial housework and, in the case of Sleeping Beauty, a passivity so profound it was deaf, dumb, blind, and comatose.

2014, Kathryn Harrison, Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured, Doubleday, →ISBN:

They emote and are long-winded about it; they express affection and passion and have sex and revel in it; they are cruel and vengeful; they whine and complain, gossip, browbeat, and nag—in short, everything that we have always suspected is behind the refractive exteriors of the more famous Cinderellas and Sleeping Beauties. […] It features a storyteller who, tired of telling the same old Cinderellas and Sleeping Beauties, meets up with some fairies in a wood as he is searching for new material.

2023, Nancy L. Canepa, transl., The Enchanted Boot: Italian Fairy Tales & Their Tellers, Wayne State University Press, →ISBN:

The main character in this story, who is in unbroken slumber under a magical spell, awaiting the kiss of a prince.


Sleeping Beauty

Alternative form of sleeping beauty (Oxalis corniculata).


tripod

PIE word
 *tréyes
Borrowed from Latin tripūs, tripodis, from Ancient Greek τρίπους (trípous); equivalent to tri- + -pod. Doublet of tripus and teapoy.

(science fiction) A fictional three-legged Martian war machine from H.G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds (1897).


fairy

en-noun

fairy (countable and uncountable, plural fairies)

From Middle English faierie, fairie, from Old French faerie, from fae + -erie, from Latin fāta (“goddess of fate”). Equivalent to fey + -ry. Attested in English from about 1330, in King Alisaunder, first in the sense of "enchantment, illusion, dream" ("that thou herdest is fairye") and shortly thereafter "realm of the fays, fairy-land" and "the inhabitants of fairyland, collectively". The re-interpretation of the term as a countable noun denoting individual inhabitants of fairy-land can be traced to the 1390s, but became common only in the 16th century, perhaps due to reinterpreting phrases like faerie knight.

"They used to say there were fairies in that hill, I must tell you!"

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 51:

(mythology) A mythical being of human form with magical powers, known in many sizes and descriptions, although often depicted in modern illustrations only as a small sprite with gauze-like wings, especially one that is female. Fairies are revered in some modern forms of paganism.

The cripple returned the smile and stuck out his hand. Miss Lonelyhearts clasped it, and they stood this way, smiling and holding hands, until Mrs. Doyle reëntered the room.
"What a sweet pair of fairies you guys are," she said.
The cripple pulled his hand away and made as though to strike his wife.

1933, Nathanael West, 'Miss Lonelyhearts' : [Miss Lonelyhearts is male.]:

We saw a horrible sight in the bar: a white hipster fairy had come in wearing a Hawaiian shirt and was asking the big drummer if he could sit in.

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 4, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 3:

Wimpy names—e.g., Cecil, Clarence, and Wendell—also seem to carry homosexual overtones, because we all know that fairies are meek and wimpy, just as we know that all wimps are ‘fags’ in one sense or the other.

1989, Marshall Kirk, Hunter Madsen, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s, Doubleday Books, page 20:

(Northern England, US, derogatory, colloquial) A male homosexual, especially one who is effeminate.

педера́ст

(derogatory slang) effeminate male homosexual


sphinx

From Middle English Spynx, from Latin Sphinx, from Ancient Greek Σφίγξ (Sphínx), perhaps either from σφίγγω (sphíngō, “to squeeze, to strangle”) (whence also sphincter), of Pre-Greek origin, or from Egyptian Szp:p-A53-anx-n:x (šzp-ꜥnḫ, “divine image”, literally “living image”).

der

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">šzp-ꜥnḫ</i>

[W]hatsoe'er of strange / Sculptured on alabaster obelisk, / Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphynx, / Dark Æthiopia in her desert hills. / Conceals.

1815 September 10 – December 14, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude”, in Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude: And Other Poems, London: […] Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […]; and Carpenter and Son, […] [b]y S[amuel] Hamilton, […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 9:

(mythology) A creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal, commonly a lion.

أَبُو الهَوْل

mythology: creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal


sphinx

la-noun

sphinx f (genitive sphingis); third declension

sphingis (genitive)
sphinx (nominative singular)
sphingēs (nominative plural)
sphinges (nominative plural)
sphingis (genitive singular)
sphingos (genitive singular)
sphingum (genitive plural)
sphingī (dative singular)
sphingibus (dative plural)
sphingem (accusative singular)
sphinga (accusative singular)
sphingēs (accusative plural)
sphingas (accusative plural)
sphinge (ablative singular)
sphingibus (ablative plural)
sphinx (singular vocative)
sphingēs (plural vocative)
sphinges (plural vocative)

From Ancient Greek Σφίγξ (Sphínx), perhaps from σφίγγω (sphíngō, “to squeeze, to strangle”) or from Egyptian Szp:p-A53-anx-n:x (šzp-ꜥnḫ, “divine image”, literally “living image”).


gnome

From French gnome (“gnome”), from New Latin gnomus, used by Paracelsus as a synonym for pygmaeus (“pygmy”).

He adopts the Rosycrusian fancy of Gnomes, spirits which inhabit the earth, and who by their power form the ores of metals, and all the wonders met with in the inmost recesses of the globe.

1811, The Medical and Physical Journal, volume 25, page 138:

Day belongs to the earthlier deities—the stern, the harsh, and the cold. Gnomes are the spirits of daily hours. Toil, thought, and strife, beset us: we have to work, to quarrel, and to struggle: we have to take our neighbours in; or, at least, to avoid their doing so by us.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 74:

Gnomes are perhaps the most useful of the elementals.
A gnome can carry a person with it as it swims through the soil, provided it is strong enough to lift the person. The gnome cannot, however, provide air for that person[…].

2006, Greg Lynch, RuneQuest Monsters, page 52:

Elementals are the consciousness guiding the four classical elements of earth, fire, air, and water. These elementals are depicted as gnomes, salamanders, diminutive faeries known as sylphs, and merfolk, known as undines, respectively.

2007, Christopher Penczak, Ascension Magick: Ritual, Myth and Healing for the New Aeon, page 413:

(magic, alchemy, Rosicrucianism) An elemental (spirit or corporeal creature associated with a classical element) associated with earth.

When the trees were disposed of, the gnomes vanished again.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 226:

There were not one but four gnomes standing at his feet. “I nearly trod on you,” Daniel said. “What are you doing here?”
The gnomes just stood, looking up at him.

2011, Ross Lawhead, The Realms Thereunder, page 251:

(mythology, fantasy) One of a race of imaginary human-like beings, usually depicted as short and typically bearded males, who inhabit the inner parts of the earth and act as guardians of mines, mineral treasure, etc.; in modern fantasy literature and games, when distinguished from dwarves, gnomes are usually smaller than dwarves and more focused on engineering than mining.

The mountain pygmy owl, Glaucidium gnoma, a small owl of the western United States.


gnome

fr-noun

gnome m (plural gnomes, feminine gnomide)

→ Danish: gnom

→ English: gnome

→ Norwegian Bokmål: gnom

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: gnom

From New Latin gnomus, not attested classically. .


red herring

en-noun

red herring (plural red herrings or red herring)

red herrings (plural)
red herring (plural)

(figurative): One possible origin of the idiom was that red herring were used to train dogs to track scents. This was true, but the modern meaning of a false trail may have been popularized in a news story by English journalist William Cobbett, c. 1805, in which he claimed that as a boy he used a red herring (a cured and salted herring) to mislead hounds following a trail; the story served as an extended metaphor for the London press, which had earned Cobbett's ire by publishing false news accounts regarding Napoleon. The OED has another possible earlier origin in the legacy of clergyman Jasper Mayne in 1672 when he misled a servant by leaving him "Somewhat that would make him Drink after his Death" in a large trunk. When the trunk was opened, the contents were found to be red herring.
(soldier): An allusion to soldiers' red uniforms; soldier is, reciprocally, a slang term for the fish.

neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring

red herring prospectus
red herring prospectus


tale

From Middle English tale, from Old English talu (“tale, series, calculation”), from Proto-West Germanic *talu, from Proto-Germanic *talō (“calculation, number”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to reckon, count”).
Cognate with West Frisian taal (“speech, language”), Dutch taal (“language, speech”), German Zahl (“number, figure”), Danish tale (“speech”), Icelandic tala (“speech, talk, discourse, number, figure”), Latin dolus (“guile, deceit, fraud”), Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos, “wile, bait”), Albanian ndjell (“to lure”), Northern Kurdish til (“finger”), Old Armenian տող (toł, “row”). Related to tell, talk.

cog

And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

Both number twice a day the milky dams
And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.

1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil, Pastoral III:

To appease the angry god, two hundred children of the noblest families were picked out for sacrifice, and the tale of victims was swelled by not less than three hundred more who volunteered to die for the fatherland.

1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 1, page 237:


worm

From Middle English worm, werm, wurm, wirm, from Old English wyrm (“worm, snake”), from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis, possibly from *wer- (“to turn”). Doublet of vermin and wyrm, the latter of which is a fairly recent borrowing directly from the Old English.
(computing): First computer usage by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider.
cognates
Germanic cognates include Dutch worm, West Frisian wjirm, German Wurm, Swedish orm (“snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk orm (“earthworm or snake”), Danish orm and Yiddish וואָרעם (vorem).
Indo-European cognates include Latin vermis (“worm”), Lithuanian var̃mas (“insect, midge”), Albanian rrime (“rainworm”), Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhómos, “woodworm”).

шнек

something helical, especially the thread of a screw

Mongolian death worm
Mongolian death worm

(fantasy, science fiction) Either a mythical "dragon" (especially wingless), a gigantic sea serpent, or a creature that resembles a Mongolian death worm.


worm

English: worm

Scots: worm, wirm

From Old English wyrm, from Proto-West Germanic *wurmi, from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis.

A dragon, drake, or wyrm (mythological fire-breathing winged lizard)

A beast that inhabits Hell; causing suffering to its inhabitants.


archenemy

From arch- (“chief, most extreme”) + enemy.


IC

(astronomy) Initialism of Index Catalogue (part of the NGC survey of J.L.E. Dreyer’s update to the Herschel General Catalogue).


hobbit

en-noun

hobbit (plural hobbits or (humorous) hobbitses)

hobbits (plural)
hobbitses (humorous plural)

Denham Tracts
Hobbit (word)
J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
hobbit

Coined in its current sense by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, featured in the novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jocularly etymologized by him as from a hypothetical Old English *holbytla (literally “hole-builder”), from hol (“hole”) + bytlan (“to build”) + -a (“-er”). Tolkien was possibly influenced by similar terms for house-sprites (probably from Hob, a hypocoristic form of Robert), or an isolated mention of hobbits (with hobgoblins following immediately afterwards) in a list of sprites and bogies from the 19th-century Denham Tracts.

pseudo-loan

A member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet.


hobbit

hobbitok (plural)
hobbit (nominative singular)
hobbitok (nominative plural)
hobbitot (accusative singular)
hobbitokat (accusative plural)
hobbitnak (dative singular)
hobbitoknak (dative plural)
hobbittal (instrumental singular)
hobbitokkal (instrumental plural)
hobbitért (causal-final singular)
hobbitokért (causal-final plural)
hobbittá (singular translative)
hobbitokká (plural translative)
hobbitig (singular terminative)
hobbitokig (plural terminative)
hobbitként (essive-formal singular)
hobbitokként (essive-formal plural)
hobbitban (inessive singular)
hobbitokban (inessive plural)
hobbiton (singular superessive)
hobbitokon (plural superessive)
hobbitnál (adessive singular)
hobbitoknál (adessive plural)
hobbitba (illative singular)
hobbitokba (illative plural)
hobbitra (singular sublative)
hobbitokra (plural sublative)
hobbithoz (allative singular)
hobbitokhoz (allative plural)
hobbitból (elative singular)
hobbitokból (elative plural)
hobbitról (delative singular)
hobbitokról (delative plural)
hobbittól (ablative singular)
hobbitoktól (ablative plural)
hobbité (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
hobbitoké (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
hobbitéi (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
hobbitokéi (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
hobbitom (first-person possessed-single possessive singular)
hobbitjaim (first-person possessed-many possessive singular)
hobbitod (possessed-single possessive second-person singular)
hobbitjaid (possessed-many possessive second-person singular)
hobbitja (possessed-single possessive singular third-person)
hobbitjai (possessed-many possessive singular third-person)
hobbitunk (first-person plural possessed-single possessive)
hobbitjaink (first-person plural possessed-many possessive)
hobbitotok (plural possessed-single possessive second-person)
hobbitjaitok (plural possessed-many possessive second-person)
hobbitjuk (plural possessed-single possessive third-person)
hobbitjaik (plural possessed-many possessive third-person)

From English hobbit; coined by J.R.R. Tolkien.

hobbit (a member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet)


hobbit

Unadapted borrowing from English hobbit; coined by J.R.R. Tolkien.


hobbit

hobbiten (definite singular)
hobbiter (indefinite plural)
hobbitene (definite plural)


hobbit

hobbiten (definite singular)
hobbitar (indefinite plural)
hobbitane (definite plural)


hobbit

pl-noun

hobbit m animal or m pers (female equivalent hobbitka, related adjective hobbicki)

hobbit m animal or (canonical masculine person)
hobbitka (feminine)
hobbicki (adjective)
hobbit (nominative singular)
hobbity (nominative plural)
hobbita (genitive singular)
hobbitów (genitive plural)
hobbitowi (dative singular)
hobbitom (dative plural)
hobbita (accusative singular)
hobbity (accusative plural)
hobbitem (instrumental singular)
hobbitami (instrumental plural)
hobbicie (locative singular)
hobbitach (locative plural)
hobbicie (singular vocative)
hobbity (plural vocative)
hobbit (nominative singular)
hobbici (nominative plural)
hobbity (derogatory nominative plural)
hobbita (genitive singular)
hobbitów (genitive plural)
hobbitowi (dative singular)
hobbitom (dative plural)
hobbita (accusative singular)
hobbitów (accusative plural)
hobbitem (instrumental singular)
hobbitami (instrumental plural)
hobbicie (locative singular)
hobbitach (locative plural)
hobbicie (singular vocative)
hobbici (plural vocative)

(fantasy) hobbit, halfling (member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet)


bunyip

The bunyip here was considered to have a magical power over humans, causing them considerable misfortune. Places where there were many eels tended to be where bunyips lived, as this was their food. On one occasion, Aboriginal people claimed that a bunyip lured a woman to her death by distracting her with a large catch of eels. It was considered extremely bad luck to kill or injure a bunyip.

2007, Janet Parker, Julie Stanton, editors, Mythology: Myths, Legends and Fantasies, page 387:

According to the stories, the Bunyip comes in many different shapes and sizes—some are covered in feathers, while others have scales like a crocodile. Most Aboriginal drawings show the Bunyip with a tail like a horse, and flippers and tusks like a walrus.

2008, Oliver Ho, Mysteries Unwrapped: Mutants & Monsters, page 26:

One particularly fierce bunyip described by Smith was well known as a man-eater throughout south Australia.

2009, David D. Gilmore, Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors, page 150:

(Australia, cryptozoology, mythology) A mythical Australian monster, said to inhabit swamps and lagoons.


apparition

/ˌæp.əɹˈɪʃn̩/

/ˌæp.ɚˈɪʃ.n̩/

/ˌæp.ɚˈɪ.ʃən/

From Middle French apparition, from Latin apparitio, from appareo.

the sudden apparition of the Spaniards

1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC:

The apparition of Lawyer Clippurse occasioned much speculation in that portion of the world.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

An act of becoming visible; appearance; visibility.

The attic is haunted by the ghostly apparition of a young girl who died there.

I think it is the weakness of mine eyes / That shapes this monstrous apparition.

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

The heavenly bands […] a glorious apparition.

1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

The apparition wobbled in front of Arthur's eyes, though the truth of the matter is probably that Arthur's eyes were wobbling in front of the apparition.

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 24:

An unexpected, wonderful, or preternatural appearance; especially something such as a ghost or phantom.

привидение

(astronomy) The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; opposed to occultation.

видимост

astronomy: the first appearance of a luminary after having been invisible or obscured

(astronomy) A period of consecutive days or nights when a particular celestial body may be observed, beginning with the heliacal rising of the body and ending with its heliacal setting.


ثعبان

Turkish: suban

Borrowed from Arabic ثُعْبَان (ṯuʕbān, “snake”).

bor+

fabulous serpent of enormous size, dragon


demon

Anthony the Great
Michelangelo
en:demon
en:demon (disambiguation)

From Middle English demon, a borrowing from Medieval Latin dēmōn, daemōn (“lar, familiar spirit, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). Doublet of daimon.

daimon

now chiefly in reference to the ancient Greek spirit

So what does the Gospel of Judas really say? It says that Judas is a specific demon called the "Thirteenth." In certain Gnostic traditions, this is the given name of the king of demons - an entity known as Ialdabaoth who lives in the 13th realm above the earth. Judas is his human alter ego, his undercover agent in the world. These Gnostics equated Ialdabaoth with the Hebrew Yahweh, whom they saw as a jealous and wrathful deity and an opponent of the supreme God whom Jesus came to earth to reveal.
Whoever wrote the Gospel of Judas was a harsh critic of mainstream Christianity and its rituals. Because Judas is a demon working for Ialdabaoth, the author believed, when Judas sacrifices Jesus he does so to the demons, not to the supreme God. This mocks mainstream Christians' belief in the atoning value of Jesus' death and in the effectiveness of the Eucharist.

2007 December 2, April D. DeConick, “What the Gospel of Judas really says”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2011-11-23, Essay:

An evil spirit resident in or working for Hell; a devil.

(Greek mythology) A tutelary deity or spirit intermediate between the major Olympian gods and mankind, especially a deified hero or the entity which supposedly guided Socrates, telling him what not to do.


torch

The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin *torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
Sense 2.3 (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun sense 1). Sense 3.2 (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (lampáda paradidónai, “to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another.
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

sueo'

stick of wood, etc., with one end soaked in a flammable substance and set on fire; similarly shaped implement with a replaceable supply of flammable material

(science fiction) Short for torch drive (“a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).


torch

en-verb

torch (third-person singular simple present torches, present participle torching, simple past and past participle torched)

torches (present singular third-person)
torching (participle present)
torched (participle past)
torched (past)

cog

λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

(science fiction) To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).

to travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive

matkustaa fuusiolla toimivalla avaruusaluksella


resurrection

en-noun

resurrection (countable and uncountable, plural resurrections)

/ɹɛzəˈɹɛkʃən/

/ɹɛzəˈɹɛkʃn̩/

From Anglo-Norman resurrectiun, from Old French resurrection (French: résurrection), from Late Latin resurrectionem (accusative of resurrectiō) from Latin resurgō (“I rise again”), from re- (“again”), + surgō (“I rise”). Displaced native Old English ǣrist.

(figuratively) A miraculous comeback or revival (e.g., of a TV series); recovery from a dire predicament.


Quidditch

Coined by British author J. K. Rowling in her 1997 book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In Quidditch Through the Ages, Rowling gives some etymological information, hinting that the word evolved from Queerditch (compound of queer + ditch), with some spelling variation as would be expected in real life Middle English, namely Kwidditch, Kweerditch.

Maybe you wish your parents were smarter or funnier or richer or better looking, but you might as well wish for a spot on the local Quidditch team.

2003, “Universal Lifts the Veil on a Harry Potter Park”, in New York Times:

Turn to the south, and you see the Central Acropolis, a five-story palace where the nobles might have sat to watch plaza ceremonies or the famous Quidditch-like Mayan ball games.

2007 December 16, Ethan Todras-Whitehill, “In Tikal, Temples in the Mist”, in New York Times:

Whichever team gets Yegor holds the edge. This is like Quidditch in hell.

2007, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007:

Eton’s playing fields are famous, not least because of the Eton Field Game. It’s played only there. It’s sort of like Quidditch for real people.

2010 May 8, Brooks Barnes, “Wait, Wait... Don’t Tell Me!”, in National Public Radio:

A fictional ball game played between two teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks, using four balls and six elevated ring-shaped goals.


knot

From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”).
See also Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte; also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur; also Latin nōdus and its Romance descendants. Doublet of knout, node, and nodus.
* (unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the log-line (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile.

In the early stages of reentry, due to the extremely-rarefied air at these altitudes, the space shuttle flew at only one to a few knots equivalent airspeed, even when its actual speed was many thousands of knots.

(aviation) A unit of indicated airspeed, calibrated airspeed, or equivalent airspeed, which varies in its relation to the unit of speed so as to compensate for the effects of different ambient atmospheric conditions on aircraft performance.


warlock

From Middle English warloghe, warlowe, warloȝe, from Old English wǣrloga (“traitor, deceiver”, literally “truce-breaker”), from Proto-West Germanic *wārulogō (“liar”), equivalent to Old English wǣr (“covenant, truce, pact, promise”) (from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁- (“true”); whence also Latin vērus) + loga (“liar”), from Proto-Germanic *lugô, related to Old English lēogan (whence English lie). The hard -ck ending originated in Scottish and Northern English, like the sense "male magic-user" (from the notion that such men were in league with the Devil and had thus broken their baptismal vows / betrayed Christianity). Cognate with Old Saxon wārlogo (“liar, unfaithful or insidious one”).
A few writers alternatively propose a derivation from Old Norse varðlokkur (“incantations, charms”, literally “ward songs”), but as the OED notes, this is implausible due to the extreme rarity of the Norse word, the semantic difference, and because forms without hard -k, which are consistent with the Old English etymology (“traitor”), are attested earlier than forms with -k, and forms with -ð- are not attested.

cog

He was himself a warlock, or wizard, which they knew by his taking the witch's part.

1730, Edward Burt, Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland:

It was the day of warlocks and apparitions, now happily driven out by the zeal of the General Assembly.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

“Is it because she was a warlock?” she asked. “I know different kinds of magic . . .” “No, that's not it, or at least . . .” Mereth paused, collecting her thoughts, then explained, “The warlockry doesn't help, Lady Sarai,[…]”

2015 February 25, Lawrence Watt-Evans, The Spell of the Black Dagger: A Legend of Ethshar, Wildside Press LLC, →ISBN, page 115:

It seemed like a strange thing for her to risk on a student she barely knew—but then, she was a warlock. Simon had no idea what they were capable of, but he was getting better at imagining.

2015 March 17, Cassandra Clare, Robin Wasserman, The Lost Herondale, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

Usually she blended in with the rest of the Academy faculty, making it easy to forget she was a warlock (at least, if you overlooked the blue skin). But he'd noticed that whenever another Downworlder was on campus, Catarina went out[…]

2015 July 21, Cassandra Clare, Robin Wasserman, Pale Kings and Princes, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

“We're also looking for a couple of warlocks,” Magnus said. “A Korean woman and a green fellow with horns.” “Oh,” said Fang with a distinct change of mood. “Them.” “You've seen them?” Alec said, trying not to sound too eager.

2020 September 1, Cassandra Clare, Wesley Chu, The Lost Book of the White, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(especially in fantasy) A magic-user (regardless of gender).


AU

en-noun

AU (countable and uncountable, plural AUs)

alternate universe
alternate universe#English

(fandom slang) Initialism of alternate universe.


oni

ONI 鬼. Generic name for devils, the representation of which in art is quite a common feature. Onis have claws, a square head with two horns, sharp teeth, and malignant eyes surmounted by big eyebrows; occasionally they wear trousers of tiger skin.

1908, Henri L. Joly, Legend in Japanese Art: A Description of Historical Episodes, Legendary Characters, Folk-lore, Myths, Religious Symbolism, Illustrated in the Arts of Old Japan, pages 263–264:

Across the ocean, in Japan, there once lived curious creatures called Onis. Every Japanese boy and girl has heard of them, though one has not often been caught.

1918, William Elliot Griffis, Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks:

"That's no human being playing the instrument," he thought in amazement. "It can only be an oni or some such being."

1979, Marian Ury, Tales of Times Now Past: Sixty-Two Stories from a Medieval Japanese Collection, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 147:

The standing Shoki holds with his left hand an oni on his leg.

1992, Karl M. Schwarz, Netsuke Subjects: A Study on the Netsuke Themes with Reference to Their Interpretation and Symbolism, Böhlau Verlag Wien, →ISBN, page 46:

This is actually a boy bishie in the form of an ogre. It's called an oni in Japanese. Onis have supernatural powers that can command the forces of nature such as wind (to create hurricanes) and lightning (to create thunderbolts).

2005, Christopher Hart, Manga Mania Shoujo: How to Draw the Charming and Romantic Characters of Japanese Comics, →ISBN, page 69:

The oni are a diverse group of evil spirits who take on the form of humanoid creatures so that they can enjoy the pleasures and vices of the flesh.

2011, Mike Shel, “Ecology of the Oni”, in Jade Regent: The Brinewall Legacy, Paizo Publishing, →ISBN, page 69:


fairy tale

I used to love reading fairy tales when I was a child.

1717, Mrs Holt, A Fairy Tale Inscrib'd, to the Honourable Mrs. W----- With other poems, London: R. Burleigh:

The Wife of Bathes Tale is evidently a Fairy-tale. It thus commences: In olde dayes of the king Artour, / Of which that Bretons speken gret honour, / All was this land fulfilled of faerie.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 122:

The Arabian Nights rehears'd in bed! / The Fairy Tales in school-time read.

1828 April 12, The Hobart Town Courier, page 4, column 4:

A folktale or literary story featuring fairies or similar fantasy characters.


black magic

Coordinate term: gray magic

Magic derived from evil forces, as distinct from good or benign forces; or magic performed with the intention of doing harm.


feral

en-adj

feral (comparative more feral, superlative most feral)

more feral (comparative)
most feral (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French féral, from fer + -al, or borrowed from a Late Latin fērālis.

1876 Statistical, Descriptive, And Historical Account Of The North-Western Provinces Of India. Allahabad: North-Western Provinces' Government Press 1876. p XIV, Agra Division
The spotted deer, in a truly feral state, has very much the same distribution in Bundelkhand as the sambar, but it is more numerous.

див

wild, untamed, especially of domesticated animals having returned to the wild

This consideration doth afford us no small light in conceiving and judging the manners and qualifications of persons, as hath been observed, that those that have impressions of grapes, or signals of vines on their bodies, are addicted to drunkenness, those who have resemblance on their bodies, or in their countenances of a boar, or any feral creature, participate in the same feral, wild and unmannerly deportment; those having any similitude of a hare, are fearful; of a fox, are cunning; of a wolf, cruel; and so of all other resemblances: and, as from these resemblances, the manners are conjectured, so likewise future events, and fortune good or bad, as shall be noted in due place. Nature is strange in many of her operations; but this is most certain, the party retains the qualities of that animal or thing to which he hath a resemblance.

1792 The Opinion of Naturalists Concerning the Moles as they are Caused in Women's Pregnancy. The Conjuror's Magazine for August 1792. p.130

Palmistry . . .The figure of a semicircle in the quadrangle of the hand, notes a feral shedder of human blood, an implacable merciless spirit....
Little puncts disorderly in the natural line, shew the worst of manners, and a feral beast-like nature.

The Conjuror's Magazine for August 1792. p.137

(of a person) Contemptible; unruly; misbehaved.


feral

(Australia, colloquial) A contemptible young person, a lout, a person who behaves wildly.

The intolerance which was directed towards us during the early years has now shifted to ‘the ferals’ who embrace a new version of nonconformist behaviour that even some of us in their parent′s generation — the Aquarian settlers — don′t like. The ferals are the scapegoats for the drug problems here, and are highly visible since many of them have nowhere to live.

1995, Bill Metcalf, From Utopian Dreaming to Communal Reality: Cooperative Lifestyles in Australia, page 82:

A pod of ferals was moving towards the exit, a half-dozen soap-shy, low-tech, bush-dwelling hippies.

2002, Shane Maloney, Something Fishy, published 2003, page 208:

It′s the rootlessness of the ferals that people don′t seem to trust; their claims of connectedness to all wild places touches a nerve. Even residents of Maydena who want to see the Florentine protected dislike the ratbags′ itinerancy.

2010, Anna Krien, Into The Woods: The Battle For Tasmania's Forests, page 102:

alternative lifestyle
alternative lifestyle

(Australia, colloquial) A person who has isolated themselves from the outside world; one living an alternative lifestyle.

The story is about a group of ferals which have to explore the ruins of society after the humans die out.

(furry fandom) A character in furry art or literature which has the physical characteristics (body) of a regular animal (typically quadripedal), that may or may not be able to communicate with humans or anthros (contrasts anthro)


enemy

From Middle English enemy, enemye, enmy, borrowed from Old French enemi, anemi (Modern French ennemi), from Latin inimīcus, from in- (“not”) + amīcus (“friend”). Displaced Middle English feend (“enemy”), from Old English fēond (“enemy”), which survived into Modern English as fiend, but with a different meaning.

let the perfect be the enemy of the good

non-player character
non-player character

(video games) A non-player character that tries to harm the player.


nano

en-noun

nano (countable and uncountable, plural nanos)

From nano-, from Latin nānus, from Ancient Greek νᾶνος (nânos).

(countable, science fiction) A nanotechnological device, such as a computer

(countable, science fiction) A nanoscale device, such as a robot


nano

From Latin nānus, from Ancient Greek νᾶνος (nânos).


dystopia

dystopia (countable and uncountable, plural dystopia or dystopias or dystopiae)

dystopia (plural)
dystopias (plural)
dystopiae (plural)

From dys- + -topia, as if from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-, “bad”) + τόπος (tópos, “place, region”) + -ία (-ía), based on utopia being reinterpreted as eu-topia.

As novelist, he knows, too, that when he sees the future, it will not work—he will automatically be creating a “dystopia” (no one creates utopias any more: even the utopias of the past look like dystopias to us).

1978 November 19, Martin Amis, “A Stoked‐Up 1976”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

2. FEAR OF TECHNOLOGY/THE BOMB/THE FUTURE—Progress run amok, either in the form of cybernetic creatures that turn against their masters, or future dystopiae in which society is controlled by technology.

1997, Jeff Yang, Dina Gan, Terry Hong, the staff of A. Magazine, Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture: from Astro Boy to Zen Buddhism, Mariner Books, →ISBN, page 57:

Erich Fromm, who has commented on 1984 and other dystopiae in postmodern literature discovers a mechanized dystopia in the text of existence itself in the ’50s and ’60s—a “technological nightmare” that had turned people into zombies and made the darkest alternative to “boring aliveness” seem attractive.

1997, Jacqueline Foertsch, “The Bomb Next Door: Four Postwar Alterapocalyptics”, in Genre, page 346:

[Aimee Semple] McPherson’s sexier half becomes the object of Jim [Morrison]’s obsession, and as the two struggle to find each other in this disordered land, their wild, careening chase through a dozen dystopiae recalls imagined worlds as diverse as Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange and Terry Gilliam’s movie Brazil.

1999, Mick Farren, Jim Morrison’s Adventures in the Afterlife, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, front flap – back flap:

Recollections tattooed with stiletto reasons and a sorrowful slant of light admitting of dystopiae already petrified in progress.

2003, Judith Fitzgerald, Adagios: Iphigenia’s Song, Oberon Press, →ISBN, page 50:

Its function is to legitimate that particular form of moral tribalism based on the “pedagogy of hatred” that [Evgeny] Zamiatin and [George] Orwell described so brilliantly in their dystopiae.

2003, Luciano Pellicani, Revolutionary Apocalypse: Ideological Roots of Terrorism, Westport, Conn., London: Praeger, →ISBN, page 233:

But you get to the beach via monorail and you get to the sand and look out to the ocean and all you see is oil tankers and factories spewing smoke on the horizon. It was like some sort of futuristic dystopia.

2014 December 11, Megan Willett-Wei, “The 16 Most Disappointing Places To Visit On Earth”, in Business Insider:

Like many dystopiae, it ends up with the lead characters wandering into a sylvan wilderness (an English wood) away from the nasty city.

2017, Kim Newman, Kim Newman’s Video Dungeon: The Collected Reviews, Titan Books, →ISBN:

A miserable, dysfunctional state or society that has a very poor standard of living or severe censorship, oppression, etc.


cowabunga

/ˌkæɔəˈbaŋɡə/

/ˌkaʊəˈbʌŋɡə/

/ˌkaʊəˈbʌŋɡə/

Unknown, but was popularized (as Kowa-Bunga) by Chief Thunderthud on the American children's show Howdy Doody in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and became associated with American surfing culture. By the early 1980s, it was used as the catch-phrase of Cookie Monster on the American television show Sesame Street, and gained popularity with a broader audience after its use in the American cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. (For further treatment, see here.)

Cowabunga, dude!

Kowa-Bunga! Then Me Fix You Good! You Be Sorry.

Shouting the surfer's cry ‘Cowabunga!’ they climb a 12-ft. wall of water and ‘take the drop’ off its shoulder.

Both words turn up in the same sentence—as in ‘Cowabunga, it's humongous!’—when the children crowd around some toy.

1991 December 9, The New Yorker, page 115:

(slang, originally US, usually humorous) Expressing amazement, enthusiasm, or joy.

Cookie Monster
Howdy Doody
surfing culture


mechanical

From Middle English mechanical, mechanicalle, mechanycalle, equivalent to mechanic + -al.

Is it a mechanical, or a man in a clockwork suit?

2012, Cindy Spencer Pape, Moonlight & Mechanicals, →ISBN, page 90:

Mechanicals arose when advanced, organic societies somehow committed suicide, from war, degeneration, unimaginable things -- or retreated, from plain simple lack of interest in the tensions of the technological life.

2013, Gregory Benford, Sailing Bright Eternity: Galactic Centre, →ISBN:

This is an example of what can take place when mechanicals are programmed with human attributes and designed to interact closely with humans.

2013, Alan Dean Foster, Greenthieves, →ISBN:

(science fiction) A robot or mechanical creature.


prophet

From Middle English prophete, from Anglo-Norman prophete, from Latin prophēta, from Ancient Greek προφήτης (prophḗtēs, “one who speaks for a god”), from πρό (pró, “before”) + φημί (phēmí, “I tell”). Displaced native Old English wītga.

der

a prophet has no honor in his own country

a prophet is not without honor save in his own country

Someone who predicts the future; a soothsayer.


flying saucer

From an interview given by amateur pilot Kenneth Arnold who described seeing nine flying objects that were "moving like saucers being skimmed across a lake". The description was not meant to describe the shape of the objects, only how they maneuvered, yet the misinterpretation took hold and gained popularity.

en:Flying saucer (confectionery)
en:flying saucer

Some connect the recent spate of flying saucer sightings with a rumored top-secret military aviation project.

An engram is NOT [...] One of the little green men Americans claim have crashed in flying saucers.

1950 December 6, The Sydney Morning Herald, page 3, column 5:

unidentified flying object
unidentified flying object

(informal) A disc-shaped unidentified flying object or UFO; originally in reference to sightings by aviator Kenneth Arnold in Washington in 1947.

թռչող ափսե

tʻṙčʻoġ apʻse

(science fiction) An alien interplanetary vessel, typically disc-shaped and of metallic construction.


unidentified flying object

en-noun

unidentified flying object (plural unidentified flying objects)

The phrase is usually attributed to US Air Force officer Edward J. Ruppelt (1923–1960) who coined it as a replacement of the terms flying saucer and flying disk.


demigod

From demi- + god. Calque of the Latin semideus (“half-god”), which is probably a coining by the Roman poet Ovid for less important gods such as dryads.

"Ah! he is one of your idols, I suppose," said Lord Norbourne, with a slight approach to a sneer. "Youth is prone to admire; but it is odd how, in a few years, we discover the defects of our demigods...

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Different Views of Youth and Age”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 99:

He finds, not “demigods” but “ a combative group of exhausted, drunken, broken, petty, partisan, scheming, squabbling, bloviating, sensory-deprived, underoxygenated, fed-up, talked-out, overheated delegates so distraught they threatened violence, secession.

2013, The Ultimate Daily Show and Philosophy:

Someone held up for reverence as a supreme example.


hero

hero (plural heroes or (sandwich sense) heros)

→ Hindi: हीरो (hīro)

→ Japanese: ヒーロー (hīrō)

→ Korean: 히어로 (hieoro)

→ Thai: ฮีโร่ (hii-rôo)

[ˈhɪə.ɹəʊ~ˈçɪə.ɹəʊ]

From Middle English heroes, from Old French heroes, from Latin hērōs (“hero”), from Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs, “demi-god, hero”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to watch over, protect”). Related to Latin servo (“protect”). Displaced Middle English heleð, haleð, from Old English hæleþ, hæle.

der

"I'm no hero," insists freckle-faced 14-year-old Freddie Hanberry. But to many of the young cancer patients, nurses and staff at University Medical Center here, he is as close as you can get. The "hero" talk began when a national magazine featured Hanberry, who has leukemia, in a special section called "100 New American Heroes."

1986 August 10, “Cancer victim some kind of hero”, in The Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA:

Every cancer victim is a true hero.

1993, Susanne Baxandall with Prasuna Reddy, The Courage to Care: The Impact of Cancer on the Family:

She is my hero, my heart, my baby till the end of time,” said Gabby's father

2011 September 12, Eileen Faust, “5-year-old Phoenixville cancer victim loses fight”, in The Mercury:

Each flag represents a hero, Andrews said, whether a first responder or victim of 9/11, active, fallen, or retired military, special friend or family member.

2011 September 12, Jen Armstrong, “Sherrill honors heroes of 9/11”, in Oneida Dispatch:

At the time, with the D-Day invasion of Europe going on, their heroism was hardly noticed. Plenty of other heroes were dying elsewhere. Plenty of bigger bits of history were being made.

2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 1948, page 43:

Somebody who possesses great bravery and carries out extraordinary or noble deeds.

However, even this great hero of the story is somewhat of a simpleton (when he lets himself be crucially deceived by Peacock Ravana in Vibhisana's shape), and a weakling (when in spite of all his strength he is almost beaten by his own son, one of the rākṣasas)

1987, Kamil Zvelebil, Two Tamil Folktales: The Story of King Matan̲akāma, The Story of Peacock Rāvaṇa, →ISBN, page xlii:

Satan is wrongly called the hero of Paradise Lost. He is really the villain-hero or the counter-hero

1992, Karuna Shanker Mishra, The Tragic Hero Through the Ages, page 242:

(New York) A large sandwich made from meats and cheeses; a hero sandwich.

(web design) The eye-catching top portion of a web page, sometimes including a hero image; the portion above the fold.


cyclops

en-noun

cyclops (plural cyclops or cyclopes or cyclopses)

cyclops (plural)
cyclopes (plural)
cyclopses (plural)

Borrowed from Latin cyclōps, from Ancient Greek Κύκλωψ (Kúklōps, “Cyclops”), q.v.

der

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A one-eyed giant from Greek and Roman mythology.

(zoology) Any copepod in the genus Cyclops.


draco

la-noun

dracō m (genitive dracōnis); third declension

dracō (canonical masculine)
dracōnis (genitive)
dracō (nominative singular)
dracōnēs (nominative plural)
dracōnis (genitive singular)
dracōnum (genitive plural)
dracōnī (dative singular)
dracōnibus (dative plural)
dracōnem (accusative singular)
dracōnēs (accusative plural)
dracōne (ablative singular)
dracōnibus (ablative plural)
dracō (singular vocative)
dracōnēs (plural vocative)

Eastern Romance:

Aromanian: drac, dracu, dãrac, darac

Megleno-Romanian: drac

Romanian: drac

Italian: drago, dragone

Navarro-Aragonese:

Aragonese: dragón

Neapolitan: draone

desctree

→ Old French: dragon, dragun (Anglo-Norman)
Middle French: dracon
French: dragon (see there for further descendants)
Norman: dragon
→ Middle English: dragoun, dragon, dragoune, dragun
English: dragon (see there for further descendants)
Scots: draigon
→ Old Irish: dragán
Irish: dragan
Manx: dragan

Old Leonese:

Asturian: dragu, dragón

Old Occitan:

Catalan: drac, dragó

Occitan: drac, dragon

→ French: drac

Old Galician-Portuguese: dragon

Galician: dragón

Portuguese: drago, dragão

Old Spanish: dragon
Spanish: drago, dragón (see there for further descendants)

Rhaeto-Romance:

Friulian: drâc, dragon

Romansch: dragun

Sardinian: dragone

Sicilian: dragu

→ Maltese: dragun

Venetan: dragon

Vulgar Latin: *dragōnis

→ Proto-Albanian: *dragɔ̄n

Albanian: dragua

→ Albanian: *drak

Albanian: dreq

→ Cornish: dragon

→ Estonian: draakon

→ Proto-West Germanic: *drakō (see there for further descendants)

→ Latvian: drakons

→ Lithuanian: drakonas

→ Welsh: draig

→ Yiddish: דראַקאָן (drakon)

From Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “serpent, dragon”).


bogie

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-bogie.wav

All of a sudden he heard a terrible scream ahead, and he thought it must be the bogie singing his dirge.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 47:

A ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature.


ufo

Reading of UFO as a word in its own right.


ufo

Orthographic borrowing from English UFO.

(science fiction, ufology) Alternative spelling of UFO


ufo

ufo (indefinite nominative singular)
ufos (genitive indefinite singular)
ufot (definite nominative singular)
ufots (definite genitive singular)
ufon (indefinite nominative plural)
ufons (genitive indefinite plural)
ufona (definite nominative plural)
ufonas (definite genitive plural)

From English UFO (“unidentified flying object”).

Att vi i Sverige så påtagligt upplevde det kalla kriget måste nog tillskrivas det djupa intryck hos allmänheten, som 1980- och 1990-talens ubåtsincidenter skapade. Här skapade man framför allt i media en bild av främmande ubåtar, minifarkoster och närmast ufos, som utan motstånd trafikerade våra farvatten.

2011, Hans Wachtmeister, edited by Herman Fältström, Ytspänning: Ett seminarium om det kalla krigets verklighet [Surface tension: a seminar about the reality of the Cold War], →ISBN, page 12:

The fact that we felt the Cold War so tangibly in Sweden should probably be attributed to the deep public impression created by the submarine incidents of the 1980s and 1990s. Here, the media in particular created a picture of foreign submarines, mini vessels and almost UFOs, that travelled through our waters unimpeded.


bogey

Probably related to or alteration of bogle, akin to or from a variant of Middle English bugge (“frightening specter, scarecrow”) (whence partly bug), of uncertain origin: perhaps from obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”) (compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat”, older “fear”), Irish bagairt (“threat”)), from Proto-Celtic [Term?], or from Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”) (compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge and Alemannic German Böögg (“goblin”, “snot”)); see also Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), whence obsolete English puck. Perhaps the Middle English and Welsh words come from a word related to buck and originally referred to a goat-shaped specter. Compare also booger.
The golf sense is from the devil as an imaginary player.


bogey

Alternative spelling of bogie (“one of two sets of wheels under a locomotive or railcar; also, a structure with axles and wheels under a locomotive, railcar, or semi which provides support and reduces vibration for the vehicle”)

bogie

Alternative spelling of bogie (“hand-operated truck or trolley”)

Upgrading the tram bogeys to air-conditioned bogeys costs the State Government approximately INR 25,00,000/- per bogey.

2020 January 30, “Upgrading Kolkata's Tram Network”, in C40 Cities, archived from the original on 2024-02-25:

(British, dated, India, rail transport) Alternative spelling of bogie (“railway carriage”)


Jim Crow

/ˌdʒɪm ˈkɹoʊ/

From the minstrel show song Jump Jim Crow, written in 1828 by Thomas D. Rice, the originator of blackface performance.

Texas stands for segregation—for Jim Crow cars, for eating in separate restaurants, for sitting in separate rail coaches, for doing all the things which make white and black people in the United States realise how different they are.

1950 February, Leonard Lindsay, in John O'London's Weekly, “The Jim Crow Car”, in Railway Magazine, page 126:

Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?

2024 February 26, Courtney Kube, Marlene Lenthang, Corky Siemaszko, quoting Aaron Bushnell, “U.S. Air Force member who set himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy in D.C. has died”, in NBC News:

(historical) Southern United States racist and especially segregationist policies in the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s, taken collectively.


ward

en-noun

ward (countable and uncountable, plural wards)

→ Swahili: wodi

From Middle English ward, warde, from Old English weard (“watching, ward, protection, guardianship; advance post; waiting for, lurking, ambuscade”), from Proto-West Germanic *wardu, from Proto-Germanic *wardō (“protection, attention, keeping”), an extension of the stem *wara- (“attentive”) (English wary, beware), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to cover”).
Cognate with German Warte (“watchtower”), warten (“wait for”); English guard is a parallel form which came via Old French.

inh

(fantasy) An enchantment or spell placed over a designated area or social unit, that prevents any tresspasser from entering; approaching; or even being able to locate said protected premises or demographic.


lover

→ German: Lover

From Middle English lovere, luffer, lufere, equivalent to love + -er.

[…]loue is blinde, and louers cannot ſee / The pretty follies that themſelues commit,[…]

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi], page 170, column 2:

Well there's a wide wide world of noble causes / And lovely landscapes to discover / But all I really want to do right now / Is find another lover

1976, Joni Mitchell (lyrics and music), “Song For Sharon”, in Hejira:

Now, there's one in California who's been cursing my name / 'Cause I found me a better lover in the UK, hey, hey / Until I made my getaway

2014 September 23, Elle King, Dave Bassett, “Ex's & Oh's”, in Love Stuff, performed by Elle King:

We can only hurt each other the way that lovers can / So where do we go, where do we hide now?

2016, David Boulter, Stuart A. Staples (lyrics and music), “Like Only Lovers Can”, in The Waiting Room, performed by Tindersticks:

One who loves and cares for another person in a romantic way; a sweetheart, love, soulmate, boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse.

szerelem (only with possessive suffixes in this sense)


monstrum

la-noun

mōnstrum n (genitive mōnstrī); second declension

mōnstrum (canonical neuter)
mōnstrī (genitive)
mōnstrum (nominative singular)
mōnstra (nominative plural)
mōnstrī (genitive singular)
mōnstrōrum (genitive plural)
mōnstrō (dative singular)
mōnstrīs (dative plural)
mōnstrum (accusative singular)
mōnstra (accusative plural)
mōnstrō (ablative singular)
mōnstrīs (ablative plural)
mōnstrum (singular vocative)
mōnstra (plural vocative)

Catalan: monstre

→ Esperanto: monstro

Galician: monstro

Italian: mostro

desctree

Old French: monstre, mostre, moustre
→ Middle English: monstre, moustre
English: monster
Scots: monster
Middle French: monstre
French: monstre
→ Romanian: monstru
Norman: monstre
→ Middle Dutch: monster
Dutch: monster

Portuguese: monstro

Spanish: monstruo

→ Albanian: moshtrë, monstër

[ˈmõːs̠t̪rʊ̃ˑ]

From Proto-Italic *monestrom. Equivalent to moneō (“advise, warn”) + -trum (suffix forming instrument nouns).

suffix

(fantasy, mythology) a divine omen indicating misfortune, an evil omen, portent


monstrum

monstrum (nominative singular)
monstra (nominative plural)
monstrum (genitive singular)
monstrów (genitive plural)
monstrum (dative singular)
monstrom (dative plural)
monstrum (accusative singular)
monstra (accusative plural)
monstrum (instrumental singular)
monstrami (instrumental plural)
monstrum (locative singular)
monstrach (locative plural)
monstrum (singular vocative)
monstra (plural vocative)

monster (terrifying and dangerous creature)


smut

en-noun

smut (countable and uncountable, plural smuts)

From Middle English smutten (“to defile, debase”), related to German Schmutz (“filth, dirt, smut”) and schmutzen (“to make dirty, stain”). Doublet of schmutz.
Compare also Old English smitta (“smear; blot; mark; stain; pollution”), Old English besmītan (“to besmut; defile; dirty; pollute; contaminate”).

cog

He does not stand upon decency […] but will talk smut, though a priest and his mother be in the room.

1711 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, May 25, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 39; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

(uncountable) Obscene language; ribaldry; obscenity.


philosopher's stone

en-noun

philosopher's stone (countable and uncountable, plural philosopher's stones)

Misconstruction of philosophers' stone, from Middle English philosophres ston, a calque of Latin lapis philosophōrum.

[…] I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life.

1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 54:

1997, Christopher McIntosh, The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology, and Rituals of an Esoteric Order, Weiser Books, 3rd Revised Edition, 1998, Paperback, page 51,
The Rosicrucianism of the Andreae era was only partly concerned with alchemy, but later revivals of the Rosicrucian idea were to lay great stress on their claims to possess the secrets of transmutation and the knowledge of the Philosopher's Stone or the Elixir of Life.

The Cleopatra of this early alchemical dialogue is not the famous Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC), last queen of the Ptolemy dynasty and lover of Mark Antony. Along with Mary Prophetess and Zosimos's Theosebia, this Cleopatra occupies a high place in alchemical lore as one of very few ancient female adepts who possessed the secret of the philosopher's stone.

2003, Stanton J. Linden, The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton, Cambridge University Press, page 44:

(alchemy, uncountable) A supposed substance able to turn base metals, such as lead or mercury, into gold or silver, also sometimes claimed to cure any illness (as panacea) or confer immortality (as elixir of life), among other functions.

sorcerer's stone

putative substance able to turn base metals into gold


bizarro

bizarro (countable and uncountable, plural bizarros)

Variant of bizarre, equivalent to bizarre + -o; see that entry for more information. In the sense of “logical inverse”, derived via the comic book character Bizarro, an inverted version of Superman from a planet where “good” means “bad” and so on, and popularized by "The Bizarro Jerry", a 1996 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld.

Often described as "the Citizen Kane of dismemberment movies," this cult-movie masterpiece set the standards for the "bizarros-who-turn-their-home-into-a-human-slaughterhouse" horror genre.

1997, Harold Schechter, The Manly Movie Guide, Boulevard, →ISBN:

Showgirl breasts and round hips that swayed to a sultry beat when she walked and drew heartbreakers and bizarros from the four corners of the earth.

2008, Cindy Gerard, Whisper No Lies, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 1:

BOOM!, he can't walk, can't talk, he's in a ward at a state institution with thirty retarded bizarros, many of them bizzare^([sic]) […]

2009, Martin Drapkin, Now and at the Hour, Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 1:


magus

From Latin magus, from Ancient Greek μάγος (mágos, “magician”), from Μάγος (Mágos, “Magian”), of an indeterminate Old Iranian origin (see Μάγος for details). Doublet of mage.

In the middle of the fifth century, Empedocles testified to the vitality of these maguses, who were capable of commanding the winds and of bringing the dead back from Hades and who presented themselves, not as mortals, but as gods.

1987, Jean-Pierre Vernant, translated by Anne Marzin, “Greek Religion”, in edited by Mircea Eliade, The Encyclopedia of Religion, volume 6, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Publishing Company; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, →ISBN, page 116, column 1:

It’s from our venerable maguses Gominik Halvor and his son. They’ve cast the runes for our enterprise.

1997, Robert Silverberg, Sorcerers of Majipoor (The Majipoor Cycle), New York, N.Y.: HarperPrism, →ISBN, page 435:

A magician; (derogatory) a conjurer or sorcerer, especially one who is a charlatan or trickster.


magus

la-noun

magus m (genitive magī); second declension

magī (genitive)
magus (nominative singular)
magī (nominative plural)
magī (genitive singular)
magōrum (genitive plural)
magō (dative singular)
magīs (dative plural)
magum (accusative singular)
magōs (accusative plural)
magō (ablative singular)
magīs (ablative plural)
mage (singular vocative)
magī (plural vocative)

→ Dutch: magiër

→ English: Magi, mage, magus

Catalan: magi

French: mage

→ Hungarian: mágus

Italian: mago

Piedmontese: mago

Portuguese: mago

Romanian: mag

→ Spanish: mago

→ Cebuano: mago

From Ancient Greek μάγος (mágos, “magician”), from Μάγος (Mágos, “Magian”), of an indeterminate Old Iranian origin (see Μάγος (Mágos) for details).

(figuratively) magician, wizard, (derogatory) sorcerer, trickster, conjurer, charlatan


גולם

he-noun

גולם / גֹּלֶם • (gólem) m (plural indefinite גְּלָמִים, plural construct גָּלְמֵי־) [pattern: קֹטֶל]

גֹּלֶם (canonical)
gólem (romanization)
גְּלָמִים (indefinite plural)
גָּלְמֵי־ (construct plural)

(mythology, Jewish folklore) a golem, a clay automaton


גולם

yi-noun

גולם • (goylem) m, plural גולמס (goylems) or גולמים (goylomem)

goylem (romanization)
goylems (romanization)
goylomem (romanization)

bor

גולם \ גֹּלֶם


monstre

English: monster

Scots: monster

Borrowed from Old French monstre, borrowed itself from Latin monstrum.

(rare) Fate, luck; fortuitousness (as an allegorical figure)


Jersey girl

(derogatory) A woman, usually from New Jersey, characterized as loud and wearing bright clothing, excessive make-up, big hair and oversized gaudy earrings.


ghoul

Portuguese: ghoul

From Persian غول (ğul) from Arabic غُول (ḡūl). Compare French goule, of the same origin.

(derogatory, slang) A person with a callous or uncaring attitude to human life and suffering, particularly when prioritizing economic concerns.


golem

גולם \ גֹּלֶם

(by extension, fantasy) A humanoid creature made from any previously inanimate matter, such as wood or stone, animated by magic.


golem

גולם \ גֹּלֶם

(mythology) golem; a creature made from mud and clay and brought to life through magic


golem

nl-noun

golem m (plural golems, diminutive golempje n)

golems (plural)
golempje (diminutive neuter)

Ultimately from Hebrew גולם \ גֹּלֶם (gólem).

der

גולם \ גֹּלֶם

(folklore, fiction) a golem, a clay automaton


golem

golem (nominative singular)
golemy (nominative plural)
golema (genitive singular)
golemów (genitive plural)
golemowi (dative singular)
golemom (dative plural)
golema (accusative singular)
golemy (accusative plural)
golemów (accusative plural)
golemem (instrumental singular)
golemami (instrumental plural)
golemie (locative singular)
golemach (locative plural)
golemie (singular vocative)
golemy (plural vocative)

Borrowed from Hebrew גולם \ גֹּלֶם (gólem).

bor+

גולם \ גֹּלֶם


golem

גולם \ גֹּלֶם


scanlation

en-noun

scanlation (countable and uncountable, plural scanlations)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-scanlation.wav

(comics, chiefly manga) The process of scanning and translating foreign-language comics (especially Japanese manga or Korean manhwa) into the translator's language, for free distribution over the Internet.


zed

en-verb

zed (third-person singular simple present zeds, present participle zedding, simple past and past participle zedded)

zeds (present singular third-person)
zedding (participle present)
zedded (participle past)
zedded (past)

From Middle English zed, zedde, zede, from Old French zede, from Late Latin zeta, from Ancient Greek ζῆτα (zêta), from Hebrew ז (zayin) with influence from beta, eta and theta. Letter had rare nonstandard usage in Old English, such as in bezt, where it represented "ts" (compare the German, Italian, and Finnish pronunciation of Z). For the sleep sense, see zzz. The zombie sense comes from the initial letter. Doublet of zeta. Cognate to Spanish zeta, German Zett, French zède, Italian zeta, and perhaps Portuguese zê.

Zedding hogs. Sleep sippers and spitters. Look at 'em cooking in their own snoring heat. One nose after another.

I guess I must have zedded, for I find a police officer, the same one that nicked me, shaking me.

1992, David Robins, Tarnished vision: crime and conflict in the inner city:

"Zedding away." "God, I was having the most awful dream. That you'd got lost by the sea and I couldn't find you and something was chasing me, me and Evie."

(intransitive, informal) To sleep or nap. (Compare zzz, catch some z's.)


catoblepas

en-noun

catoblepas (plural catoblepae or catoblepones)

catoblepae (plural)
catoblepones (plural)

Borrowed from Latin catōblepās, from Ancient Greek κᾰτῶβλεψ (katôbleps), κᾰτωβλέπων (katōblépōn), κᾰτώβλεπον (katṓblepon, “down-looker”), from κᾰτᾰβλέπω (katablépō, “to look downwards”, from κᾰτᾰ́ (katá) + βλέπω (blépō)).

af

κᾰτᾰ́ (katá) + βλέπω (blépō)

Behind them, blindfolded and muzzled, came catoblepones.

2019, Joel Puga, The Journeys of the Sorcerer:

The most obvious curseinflicting monsters that came to mind were Basilisks, Cockatrices, and Catoblepones.

2022, Patora Fuyuhara, In Another World With My Smartphone:

A legendary creature from Ethiopia, said to have the body of a Cape buffalo, scales on its back, and the head of a wild boar, which always points downward because of its weight.