portmanteau

en-noun

portmanteau (plural portmanteaus or portmanteaux)

portmanteaus (plural)
portmanteaux (plural)

Jabberwocky
Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass
portmanteau

First used by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass to describe the words he coined in “Jabberwocky”.

His long-awaited portmanteau, which premiered in Cannes on Monday, is the most Anderson of all Anderson films. It's Anderson distilled, Anderson squared, Anderson to the nth degree.

2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC:


true name

He saw that in this dusty and fathomless matter of learning the true name of each place, thing, and being, the power he wanted lay like a jewel at the bottom of a dry well. For magic consists in this, the true naming of a thing.

1968, Ursula Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, page 59:

It would be back to the stone floors and getting up when it was still dark and no alcohol under any circumstances and memorising the true names of everything until the brain squeaked.

1987, Terry Pratchett, Mort, →ISBN, page 229:

They conjured a world of primitive magic in which evil spirits could not be given their true names for fear of increasing their power.

1991 April 23, Martin Cropper, “In The Native State”, in The Times:

(fantasy) The unique name of an entity, which can be used to control or manipulate that entity.


shapeshift

en-verb

shapeshift (third-person singular simple present shapeshifts, present participle shapeshifting, simple past and past participle shapeshifted)

shapeshifts (present singular third-person)
shapeshifting (participle present)
shapeshifted (participle past)
shapeshifted (past)

Probably a back-formation from shapeshifter.

Journey in exactly the same way as you did to shapeshift into your power animal except, this time, set your intention to shapeshift into a named ancestor.

2010, Mike Williams, Follow the Shaman's Call: An Ancient Path for Modern Lives, page 91:

I can't shapeshift Zane, I only look like this I always have.

But to embed oneself in an irregular and unpredictable food supply as mycelium does, one must be able to shapeshift.

2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 57:

(biology, fantasy, mythology, intransitive) To change one's shape or form (into another) through often magical means, normally applied only to living beings.


aberration

en-noun

aberration (countable and uncountable, plural aberrations)

/ˌæb.əˈɹeɪ.ʃn̩/

A learned borrowing from Latin aberrātiō(n) (“relief, diversion”), first attested in 1594, from aberrō (“wander away, go astray”), from ab (“away”) + errō (“wander”). Compare French aberration. By surface analysis, aberrat(e) + -ion.

абера́ция

astronomy: small periodical change of position of heavenly bodies

Only by submitting to the aberration could the human traders travel safely through the territory of Zularn.

(fantasy, roleplaying games) Any creature with supernatural powers not found in the organized classes of beings in a given setting.


sasquatch

Borrowed from Halkomelem sásq’ets (“hairy man”).

bor+

(cryptozoology) A large hairy humanoid creature of western North America.


phoenix

en-noun

phoenix (plural phoenix or phoenixes or phoenices)

phoenix (plural)
phoenixes (plural)
phoenices (plural)

From Old English and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoînix), from Egyptian bnw (boinu, “grey heron”). Doublet of Bennu. The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.

(Chinese mythology) A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies; a fenghuang.


phoenix

la-noun

phoenīx f (genitive phoenīcis); third declension

phoenīx (canonical feminine)
phoenīcis (genitive)
phoenīx (nominative singular)
phoenīcēs (nominative plural)
phoenīcis (genitive singular)
phoenīcium (genitive plural)
phoenīcī (dative singular)
phoenīcibus (dative plural)
phoenīcem (accusative singular)
phoenīcēs (accusative plural)
phoenīcīs (accusative plural)
phoenīce (ablative singular)
phoenīcibus (ablative plural)
phoenīx (singular vocative)
phoenīcēs (plural vocative)


morph

en-verb

morph (third-person singular simple present morphs, present participle morphing, simple past and past participle morphed)

morphs (present singular third-person)
morphing (participle present)
morphed (participle past)
morphed (past)

Meta leapt forward. In midair his lower half morphed, and suddenly he was one-half humanoid, one-half coiled spring.

"Would it reflect badly on women if I morphed my bust size up a bit for it? Sorta like wearing a padded bra?"

2015 January 30, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP (webcomic), Comic for Friday, Jan 30, 2015:

(science fiction, fantasy) To shapeshift.


gold

Borrowed from English gold, from Middle English gold, from Old English gold (“gold”), from Proto-Germanic *gulþą (“gold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰl̥tóm (“gold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“yellow; gleam; to shine”).

der

(fantasy roleplaying games board games) miscellaneous unit of currency in fantasy genre


wij

wij (nominative singular)
wije (nominative plural)
wija (genitive singular)
wijów (genitive plural)
wijowi (dative singular)
wijom (dative plural)
wija (accusative singular)
wije (accusative plural)
wijem (instrumental singular)
wijami (instrumental plural)
wiju (locative singular)
wijach (locative plural)
wiju (singular vocative)
wije (plural vocative)

Probably related to Ukrainian вій (vij), which refers to the same creature.

myriapod (arthropod belonging to the subphylum Myriapoda)

(Slavic mythology) viy (creature with gigantic eyelids and eyelashes from hell who kills by looking at people)


banshee

desc

→ Arabic: بَانْشِي (bānšī)

→ Arabic: بَانْشِي (bānšī)

→ Catalan: banshee

→ Dutch: banshee

→ Esperanto: banŝio

→ Finnish: banshee

→ French: banshee, banshie

→ German: Banshee

→ Japanese: バンシー (banshī)

→ Korean: 반시 (bansi)

→ Northern Kurdish: banşî

→ Portuguese: banshee

→ Russian: ба́нши (bánši), банши́ (banší), ба́ньши (bánʹši), баньши́ (banʹší)

→ Spanish: banshee

Borrowed from Irish bean sí, from Old Irish ben síde (literally “woman of the fairy mound”). The term banshee entered English in 1771.

der

Late had he heard, in prophet's dream, / The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream […].

1810, The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott, 3.VII:

(Scotland, Ireland, folklore) A female spirit, usually taking the form of a woman whose mournful wailing warns of an impending death.


gripe

English: grip (obsolete)

Borrowed from Old French gripe, from Latin gryps, grȳphus, from Ancient Greek γρῡ́ψ (grū́ps).

A griffin (mythological beast; also in heraldry).


magia

Borrowed from Late Latin magīa, from Ancient Greek μαγεία (mageía).

Los cineastas usaron su magia tecnológica para crear efectos especiales.

The filmmakers used their technical wizardry to create special effects.

(figuratively) wizardry (skill, ability)


dimension

a machine that lets you travel to a parallel dimension.

"If a man should wish to be in some other place, it is entirely possible for him to imagine himself in that place and, diving back through the negative dimension, to emerge out of it in that place with instantaneous rapidity. To imagine oneself———"

1938 July, L. Ron Hubbard, “The Dangerous Dimension”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume XXI, number 5, Street & Smith, →OCLC, page 105:

DR. PAUL MANHEIM: I have been on the other side. I have touched another dimension. Part of me is still there.
LAURA MANHEIM: Help him.
DR. CRUSHER: Try to stay calm Dr. Manheim. I don't think it's going to help you're struggling against it.
DR. PAUL MANHEIM: My mind is floating between two places. It is difficult to know which is which. There is no way to explain it.

1988 May 2, Rod Loomis, Michelle Phillips, Gates McFadden, We'll Always Have Paris (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:

He was experimenting with matter transportation through the nth dimension.

2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 2:

(science fiction, fantasy) A universe or plane of existence.


larva

la-noun

lārva f (genitive lārvae); first declension

lārva (canonical feminine)
lārvae (genitive)
lārva (nominative singular)
lārvae (nominative plural)
lārvae (genitive singular)
lārvārum (genitive plural)
lārvae (dative singular)
lārvīs (dative plural)
lārvam (accusative singular)
lārvās (accusative plural)
lārvā (ablative singular)
lārvīs (ablative plural)
lārva (singular vocative)
lārvae (plural vocative)

Catalan: larva

Czech: larva

Danish: larve

Dutch: larve

English: larva

French: larve

Galician: larva

Hungarian: lárva

Macedonian: ларва (larva)

Middle High German: larve, larfe

German: Larve

Mòcheno: lòrf

Italian: larva

Norwegian: larve

Polish: larwa

Portuguese: larva

Romanian: larvă

Russian: ла́рва (lárva)

Spanish: larva

Swedish: larv

Possibly from Lār (“Etruscan praenomen; titulary god”), usu. as Lares (“guardian deities”), but vowel length gradation unexplained.

(mythology) ghost, haunt, evil spirit, demon, devil


law

en-noun

law (countable and uncountable, plural laws)

From Middle English lawe, laȝe, from Old English lagu (“law”), borrowed from Old Norse lǫg (“law”, literally “things laid down or firmly established”), originally the plural of lag (“layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“that which is laid down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”). Cognate with Scots law (“law”), Icelandic lög (“things laid down, law”), Faroese lóg (“law”), Norwegian lov (“law”), Swedish lag (“law”), Danish lov (“law”), Finnish laki (“law”). Replaced Old English ǣ and ġesetnes. More at lay.
Not related to legal, nor to French loi, Spanish ley, all of which ultimately derive from Latin lēx, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”).

азакуан

body of rules established in a community by its authorities{{multitrans|data=

(fantasy) One of two metaphysical forces ruling the world in some fantasy settings, also called order, and opposed to chaos.


悪魔

From Middle Chinese 惡魔 (MC 'ak ma, literally “bad, evil + demon”).

ltc-l

(Buddhism) a mara, a demon seeking to prevent enlightenment


neck

The Neck no more upon the river sings.
And no Mermaid to bleach her linen flings
Upon the waves in the mild solar ray.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 234:

(folklore) A shapeshifting water spirit in Germanic mythology and folklore; a nix.


race

en-noun

race (countable and uncountable, plural races)

1560s, via Middle French race from Italian razza (early 14th century), of uncertain origin. Partially displaced native Middle English kinde (“kind, type, sort, race, nature”), whence English kind.
theories
* Diez and some other scholars suggest derivation from Proto-Germanic *raitō (whence Old High German reiza (“line”) and Old Norse ríta (“to score, log, outline”)), perhaps via Lombardic *raiza (“line”), which Körting notes is a literal rendering of Latin linea sanguinis (“bloodline of descent”). Anatoly Liberman says "the semantic fit is good" but the chronology falters; he says the Germanic word went out of use before the Italian word arose, and he says the intermediary is not attested.
* Some scholars suggest derivation from Old Spanish raza, rasa, from earlier ras, res (“head of cattle”), from Arabic رَأْس (raʔs, “head”), but Italian razza predates the Spanish word according to Diez and Meyer-Lübke.
* Meyer-Lübke suggested Latin generatio as the root; Körting says "the disappearance of two initial syllables hardly seems credible", but Meyer-Lübke notes the Venetian form narazza and the Old Bellunesian form naraccia, positing that after the first syllable ge- was lost, the remaining (una) narazza came to be reanalysed as una razza.
* Gianfranco Contini suggests the Italian word comes from Old French haraz (“troop of horses”), whence Modern French haras (“breeding farm for horses; stud farm”), from Old Norse hárr (“grey-haired; hoary”). Liberman considers this derivation the most likely.
* Other suggested Latin etyma:
** radius (perhaps via Vulgar Latin *radia) (per Baist).
** radix (“root”) (per Ulrich); Liberman says "the semantic match is excellent", and race (“rhizome of ginger”) (which definitely derives from radix) shows that the phonology is plausible.
** *raptiare (“breed falcons”) (per Körting).
** The nominative of ratio (perhaps via an unattested intermediate form *razzo), as opposed to ragione which derives from the accusative rationem.
* Other implausible suggestions include Slavic raz and Basque arraca, supposedly meaning "stud animal" (Basque arrazza, "race", derives from Spanish).

raça

a group of sentient beings distinguished by common characteristics

عِرْق

a large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of physical characteristics

raça

a group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics

A treaty was concluded between the race of elves and the race of men.

There are two distinct races of gods known to Norse mythology[.]

1898, Herman Isidore Stern, The gods of our fathers: a study of Saxon mythology, page 15:

Imagine a race of aliens that develops on a dimly lit world perpetually shrouded in clouds so that vision would be less useful for survival than on Earth.

1999, Clifford A. Pickover, The Science of Aliens, page 47:

Tali: My father is responsible for the lives of seventeen million people—our entire race is in his hands. And I'm his only child.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1:

A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race):

(fantasy, science fiction, mythology) A large group of nonhumans distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage.


behemoth

/ˈbiː.əˌməθ/

From Middle English behemoth, bemoth, from Late Latin behemoth, from Hebrew בְּהֵמוֹת (behemót). Most likely, the Hebrew word is an intensive plural of בְּהֵמָה (behemá, “beast”), from Proto-Semitic (compare Ge'ez ብህመ (bəhmä, “to be dumb, to be speechless”), Arabic ب ه م (b-h-m)).
Some have instead suggested a borrowing from a hypothetical Egyptian pA-i-H-E1-mw (*pꜣ-jḥ-mw, “hippopotamus”, literally “the ox of the water”), from pꜣ (“definite article”) + jḥ (“ox, cattle”) + mw (“water”) in a direct genitive construction (for the pronunciation, compare the later Coptic descendants ⲡ- (p-) + ⲉϩⲉ (ehe) + ⲙⲟⲟⲩ (moou)); this, however, suffers from problems such as the lack of attestation of the supposed etymon, and there seems little reason to prefer it to the intensive plural explanation.

der

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">*pꜣ-jḥ-mw</i>

Coordinate term: leviathan

⸿ Beholde now Behemoth which I made with thee, hee eateth graſſe as an oxe.
 Loe now, his ſtrength is in his loynes, and his force is in the nauell of his belly.
 Hee moueth his taile like a Cedar: the ſinewes of his ſtones are wrapt together.
 His bones are as ſtrong pieces of braſſe: his bones are like barres of iron.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 40:15–18, column 1:

(biblical) A great and mighty beast which God shows to Job in Job 40:15–24.


人

CJKV/code

Sino-Xenic (人):
* → Japanese: 人(にん) (nin); 人(じん) (jin)
* → Korean: 인(人) (in)
* → Vietnamese: nhân (人)

Austroasiatic languages
Shang dynasty
Yueshi culture

Characters in the same phonetic series (人) (Zhengzhang, 2003)
Pictogram (象形) – side view of a standing man, highlighting the arms and legs. Compare 大 and 立 (lì).
亼 is similar but unrelated; it represents an open mouth flipped upside down and appears on top of characters such as 食, 金, 令, 龠, and 今.
It represents a roof in the characters 余, 茶, 舍, and 倉. It represents a flag on a flagpole in 㫃. Eventually, it represents two parallel mountain walls in 谷.
The stylized version to the left of the characters is 亻 (see also 千). Similar but unrelated to 彳.
Sagart (1999) relates it to Tibetan ཉེན (nyen, “relative”), from ཉེ (nye, “near”) + nominalizing suffix -n; if so, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-naːj ~ s-nej (“near”).
Schuessler (2007) proposes two etymologies:
* Same etymon as 仁 (OC *njin, “to be kind; to be good”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s/k-niŋ (“heart; brain; mind”). The semantic association of 仁 with 人 was somewhat late, dated to Mencius's time; later on, 仁 would be usually interpreted as "humane, acting like a human being".
** If so, semantically parallel with Tibetan སེམས་ཅན (sems can, “living being, human, animal”, literally “possessor of mind”); and Latin animalis (“living, having soul”) from anima (“soul”).
* Related to Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɲaʔ ~ *ɲah (“person”) with a nominalizing suffix -n, from the auto-ethnonym of a hostile, possibly Austroasiatic-speaking, eastern people, whom the Sinitic-speaking Shang referred to as 人方 (OC *njin paŋ).

ncog

亻
𠆢
儿
𠂉
几
𠔽
𤯔
𦉫
寧
儂/侬
𠆧

吃得苦中苦，方為人上人／吃得苦中苦，方为人上人

chī de kǔ zhōng kǔ, fāng wéi rén shàng rén

狼人 ― lángrén ― werewolf

虎人 ― hǔrén ― weretiger

(fantasy, mythology) were- (indicates a person who changes shape into an animal)


ドラゴン

[do̞ɾa̠ɡõ̞ɴ]

(especially fantasy) Western dragon (mythical creature)


human

From Late Middle English humayne, humain, from Middle French humain, from Old French humain, umain, from Latin hūmānus m (“of or belonging to a man, human, humane”, adjective), from homo, with unclear ū. Spelling human has been predominant since the early 18th century. Not etymologically related to man.

der

чолові́к m (čolovík) (now usually means "man", "male human")

Greetings. I am Blor-Utar from Zimtok-5. I have come to subjugate the human race. Do not resist. Why humans? Because, in addition to their value as slave labor, they are also delicious and nutritious!

1994 March 29, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes:

(strictly, biology) The tallest, most abundant and most intelligent of the primates; Homo sapiens.

(fantasy, science fiction, mythology) A human as contrasted from superficially similar but typically more powerful humanoid creatures; a member of the human race.

Greetings, human! You have stumbled into the dimension of the Snow People.[…]Flesh plows clear the streets to make them safe to drive.[…]Does this shock you, human? Do the ways of our world open your eyes to the truths of your own?

2011 December 29, Alex Culang, Raynato Castro, Buttersafe (webcomic):

(fantasy, science fiction) A term of address for any human, often implying the listener's species is their only noteworthy trait.


broadsword

The Brythunian's arm drew back; the ancient broadsword with its strange, clawed quillons arcked spinning through the air.

1990, Robert Jordan, “Conan the Magnificent”, in The Conan Chronicles II, published 1997:

Henry carried a heavy broadsword with a cruciform hilt, and a decorated dagger on his hip known as a misericord because its blade could release souls. The English knights and men-at-arms carried broadswords, maces for smashing skulls and the murderous pole-axe, combining a spear with an axehead about five feet long.

2013, Colin Brown, “1415 Azincourt”, in Glory and B*llocks: The Truth Behind Ten Defining Events in British History, →ISBN, page 46:

(colloquial, often fantasy) Synonym of longsword


mana

en-noun

mana (usually uncountable, plural manas)

Borrowed from Maori mana, ultimately from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.
The use of "mana" for "magical power" in videogames originated from Larry Niven, when he wrote the short story, "Not Long Before the End", in 1969. It was later popularised by his "The Magic Goes Away" setting.

Battle of Chunuk Bair
New Zealand Defence Force
Royal New Zealand Navy

[page 10] I have the honor to report, for the information of the Government, the result of my visit to Maketu and the Lake District, and the preliminary arrangements made for introducing the new system of Government for the Natives. […] [page 12] They further required that a certain number of the old Chiefs should be liberally pensioned by the Government, and placed upon a footing of equality with European gentlemen of independent means, in consideration of their resigning their "mana" as Chiefs in favor of the new system; […]

1862 January 25, Thomas H. Smith, “No. 4: Second Report from T. H. Smith, Esq., R.M.”, in Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand. From the Seventh Day of July to the Fifteenth Day of September, 1862 both Days Inclusive. In the Twenty-sixth Day of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Being the Second Session of the Third Parliament of New Zealand, Wellington: Printed by W. C. Wilson for the House of Representatives, at the printing office, Shortland Crescent, Auckland, →OCLC, pages 10 and 12:

The human tribe partakes of the mana or life-force of the animal, and is strengthened[].

1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 61:

But in popular estimation their essential virtue derived from the personal mana of the sovereign.

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in 16th and 17th Century England, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, OCLC 71368859; republished London: Folio Society, 2012, OCLC 805007047, page 193

It can be seen, therefore, that mana is a nonvisible changing measure; it can remain static, increase, or decrease, depending on the actions or inaction of the recipient, and it can be enhanced or diminished. […] One can speak of the mana of a warrior, the mana of a woman leader, the mana of a child prodigy.

1999, Pat Hohepa, “My Musket, My Missionary and My Mana”, in Alex Calder, Jonathan Lamb, Bridget Orr, editors, Voyages and Beaches: Pacific Encounters, 1769–1840, Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, →ISBN, page 197:

Among the Maori sovereignty was the result of mana—power based on hereditary rank and personal achievement. Manas could coexist and overlap, as they did in the medieval times in Europe.

2001 September, Aldo Matteucci, “Language and Diplomacy – A Practitioner's View”, in Jovan Kurbalija, Hannah Slavik, editors, Language and Diplomacy, Malta: DiploProjects, Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, University of Malta, →ISBN, page 61:

On a number of occasions in recent years apologies have been offered to Māori because of past offences to their mana and invasions of their rights as tangata whenua.

2012, Harold Hill, “Te Ope Whakaora, the Army that Brings Life: The Salvation Army and Māori”, in Hugh [Douglas] Morrison, Lachy Paterson, Brett Knowles, Murray Rae, editors, Mana Māori and Christianity, Wellington: Huia Publishers, →ISBN:

Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people.

[…] Teleporting from an open room where there were a dozen black orcs firing bows […] landed me, low on mana and hitpoints, in a room full of gnome mages who instantly summoned four umber hulks and a xorn!

2003 May 20, “Bear”, “Makes Lovely Julienne Ogres …”, in rec.games.roguelike.angband (Usenet), message-ID <3EC9C629.4DF117C@sonic.net>:

Mana often grows in exponential proportion to population size, so as the population increases the player acquires vastly greater powers—a progression that god games share with spellcaster characters in role-playing games.

2010, Ernest Adams, “Artifical Life and Puzzle Games”, in Fundamentals of Game Design, 2nd edition, Berkeley, Calif.: New Riders, →ISBN, page 580:

(fantasy roleplaying games) Magical power.


mana

mana (nominative singular)
many (genitive singular)
manie (dative singular)
manę (accusative singular)
maną (instrumental singular)
manie (locative singular)
mano (singular vocative)

Borrowed from Maori mana, from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

(fantasy roleplaying games) mana (magical power)


mana

Borrowed from English mana, from Maori mana.


dry

drȳ (canonical masculine)
drȳas (nominative plural)
drȳ (nominative singular)
drȳas (nominative plural)
drȳ (accusative singular)
drȳas (accusative plural)
drȳes (genitive singular)
drȳa (genitive plural)
drȳe (dative singular)
drȳum (dative plural)

Middle English: dri, driȝ, dry

⇒ Middle English: driȝmann, driȝmenn pl

Borrowed from a Brythonic language, from Proto-Brythonic *drüw, from Proto-Celtic *druwits (“druid”).

late 10th century, Ælfric, "Passion of St. Julian and his wife Basilissa"
Gehelp urum godum and hat to þe gefeccan þisne dry Iulianum þe ure goda anlicnysse mid ealle to-brytte...

Help our gods, and command men to bring thee this sorcerer Julianus, who hath utterly broken the images of our gods,...

Hīe woldon forbærnan þone drȳ. ― They wanted to burn the wizard. (Ælfric’s Homilies, volume 1.)


magician

/məˈd͡ʒɪʃən/

From Middle English magicien, from Middle French magicien.

A person who plays with or practices allegedly supernatural magic.

magjistar

practitioner of allegedly supernatural magic


夔

From a Kam-Tai source (Mei, 1980; Schuessler, 2007); compare Proto-Tai *ɣwaːjᴬ (“water buffalo”), Sui kui² (“water buffalo”). Schuessler also considered 犩 (Later Han Chinese ŋuɨ) to be the same etymon.

(Chinese mythology) the Kui, a one-legged creature


妖

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *qrow): semantic 女 + phonetic 夭 (OC *qoːwʔ, *qrow, *qrowʔ).

Han compound

貓妖

猫妖


astral

en-adj

astral (comparative more astral, superlative most astral)

more astral (comparative)
most astral (superlative)

From Late Latin astralis, from Latin astrum (“star”), from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”).

Coordinate term: spectral

In the case of an inanimate body, […] when the physical object was broken the astral counterpart would also be divided; but it would not be possible to break an astral counterpart, and in that way to affect the physical object. In other words the act of fraction must begin on the physical plane. One could of course move a purely astral object by means of an astral hand if one wished, but not the astral counterpart of a physical object. In order to perform this latter feat it would be necessary to materialize a hand and move the physical object, when the astral counterpart would of course accompany it.

1911, Charles Webster Leadbeater, Theosophical Talks at Adyar, page 194:

"[I could] see her astral form sitting on the edge of her bed. She was waiting for me."

2005 03, Harry Highstreet, The OOBE File, Harry, →ISBN, page 123:

[He could] see her astral projection; she looked like a celestial being, holding her hand out to him. With relief rushing through his body, he called out to her, "I've got you angel, and I'm coming!" Hammering the gas the car took off[…]

2011 October 11, Kristi O'Toole, Under the Moon, PublishAmerica, →ISBN:

[Other actions], such as the moving of solid articles, either by an astral hand projected to draw them towards her, or by using an Elemental; others by reading in the Astral Light, and so on. But the proof of the reality of her mission from those whom she spoke of as Masters lay not in these[…]

2021 January 1, Annie Besant, Annie Besant, An Autobiography: Annie Besant, An Autobiography by Annie Besant: The Autobiography of Annie Besant, Prabhat Prakashan:

(parapsychology, theosophy, fantasy) Composed of ethereal material or non-physical (sometimes supersensible), and capable of sometimes separating from the physical body (as an astral body) to travel to other places or to other realms of existence (in or via the astral plane).

astraalinen

relating to a supposed supersensible substance


犼

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声): semantic 犭 (“canine”) + phonetic 孔 (OC *kʰloːŋʔ)


獏

獏 (canonical)
獏 (canonical)
baku (romanization)


獍

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kraŋs): semantic 犬 (“dog”) + phonetic 竟 (OC *kraŋs).
A late word; its earliest extant attestation is in the late 5th-century treatise 《述異記》 Tales of Strange Matters by 任昉 Ren Fang (460-508).
Related to 破鏡 (OC *pʰaːls kraŋs, “a beast that eats its own father”) mentioned in the Book of Han.

och-l

a mythical tiger-like animal that eats its own mother shortly after birth


MP

en-noun

MP (countable and uncountable, plural MPs)

(fantasy, roleplaying games, board games, video games) mana points or magic points

roleplaying games; board games; roleplaying games; board games


竜

ja-noun

竜(りゅう) • (ryū)


竜

竜 (canonical)
Ryū (romanization)
Ryuu (romanization)
りゆう (hiragana historical)

(astronomy) Short for りゅう座 (Ryūza): the constellation Draco


竜

竜 (canonical)
ryō (romanization)
ryou (romanization)
りよう (hiragana historical)

(mythology, rare or in Chinese contexts) a Chinese dragon


magic

en-noun

magic (usually uncountable, plural magics)

→ Japanese: マジック (majikku)

From Middle English magik, magyk, from Old French magique (noun and adjective), from Latin magicus (adjective), magica (noun use of feminine form of magicus), from Ancient Greek μαγικός (magikós, “magical”), from μάγος (mágos, “magus”). Ultimately from Old Iranian, probably derived from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂gʰ- (“to be able to, to help; power, sorcerer”). Displaced native Old English ġealdor (survived in Middle English galder), and dwimmer.

toorkuns

use of rituals or actions exploiting the supernatural

toorkuns

ritual associated with supernatural magic or mysticism

աճպարարություն

illusion performed to give the appearance of magic or the supernatural

The application of rituals or actions, especially those based on occult knowledge, to subdue or manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces in order to have some benefit from them.

The supernatural forces which are drawn on in such a ritual.

dwimmer

allegedly supernatural method to dominate natural forces

I learned a new magic after rescuing the tree fairy.

(gaming, countable) The ability to cast a magic spell.

(entertainment) The art or practice of performing conjuring tricks and illusions to give the appearance of supernatural phenomena or powers.

(countable) One such conjuring trick or illusion.


蜃

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *djɯns, *djɯnʔ, *djins): phonetic 辰 (OC *djɯn) + semantic 虫 (“insect”).
May also be an ideogrammic compound (會意／会意), with 辰 possibly being an agricultural tool made from clam, see there for more.
Possibly related to 辰 (OC *djɯn, “5th earthly branch; dragon”) (Schuessler, 2007); see there for more.
Carr (1990) organizes characters in the 辰 phonetic series into two groups, one of which is "dragon", which includes 蜃 as well as 晨 (OC *djɯn, “dragon star”).

och-l

蜃景

By the sea, the clamʼs mist resembles towers; in the wild expanse, mist becomes palaces thus.

Hǎipáng shènqì xiàng lóutái, guǎngyě qì chéng gōngquè rán.

海旁蜃氣象樓臺，廣野氣成宮闕然。

海旁蜃气象楼台，广野气成宫阙然。

Before the door, the drakes blow mist; on the coir, the orchids emit fragrance.

齊己 (Qí Jǐ) 《湘江漁父》 "The Fisherman on Xiang River", in 《全唐詩》 Quan Tangshi.

Ménqián jiāoshèn qì, suōshàng huìlán xīn.

門前蛟蜃氣，蓑上蕙蘭馨。

门前蛟蜃气，蓑上蕙兰馨。

(mythology) the shen, a shapeshifting aquatic monster originally imagined as a clam and later as a type of dragon


蟈

Alternative form of 蜮 (yù, “legendary creature that has three legs and harms humans”)


虺

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *hŋuːl, *hŋruːl, *hŋlulʔ): phonetic 兀 (OC *ŋuːd) + semantic 虫.
; “venomous snake”

Han compound

What dreams are lucky?
They have been about black bears and brown bears,
They have been about asps and adders.

The Classic of Poetry, c. 11ᵗʰ – 7ᵗʰ centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

Jí mèng wéi hé,
Wéi xióng wéi pí,
Wéi huǐ wéi shé.

吉夢維何、
維熊維羆、
維虺維蛇。

吉梦维何、
维熊维罴、
维虺维蛇。

1919, 《新舊約全書：官話和合譯本》 [Mandarin Bible, Union Version], Shanghai: American Bible Society:

Dan will be a serpent on the trail, an adder in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward. [World English Bible]

Dàn bì zuò dào shang de shé, lù zhōng de huǐ, yǎoshāng mǎtí, shǐ qímǎ de zhuìluò yú hòu.

但必作道上的蛇、路中的虺、咬傷馬蹄、使騎馬的墜落於後。

但必作道上的蛇、路中的虺、咬伤马蹄、使骑马的坠落于后。

(Chinese mythology) a kind of venomous snake


ogre

First attested in the 18th century, borrowed from French ogre, from Latin Orcus (“god of the underworld”), from Ancient Greek Ὅρκος (Hórkos), the personified demon of oaths (ὅρκος (hórkos, “oath”)) who inflicts punishment upon oath-breakers. Doublet of orc and Orcus.

And in the seventh tale of the third day of the same collection, when Corvetto had hidden himself under the Ogre's bed to steal his quilt, "he began to pull quite gently, when the Ogre awoke, and bid his wife not to pull the clothes that way, or she'd strip him, and he would get his death of cold." "Why, it's you that are stripping me," replied the Ogress, "and you have not left a stitch on me." "Where the devil is the quilt?" says the Ogre[.]

1828, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, volume II, page 237:

(mythology) A type of brutish giant from folk tales that eats human flesh.


elf

en-noun

elf (plural elves or (now nonstandard) elfs)

elves (plural)
elfs (nonstandard plural)

A Dictionary of the English Language
Andrew Brice
Edmund Spenser
John Dryden
Laurence Eusden
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Oliver and Boyd
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Peter Heylyn
Sabine Baring-Gould
Sidney Lanier
Thomas Nashe
elf

→ Arabic: إِلْف (ʔilf)

→ Dutch: elf

→ French: elfe

→ German: Elf, Elfe

→ Japanese: エルフ (erufu)

→ Korean: 엘프 (elpeu)

→ Russian: эльф (elʹf)

→ Ukrainian: ельф (elʹf)

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Ultimately probably derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”). Doublet of alf and oaf.

(fantasy) Any of the magical, typically forest-guarding races bearing some similarities to the Norse álfar (through Tolkien's Eldar).

elf

fantasy: magical, typically forest-guarding creature


elf

elf (nominative singular)
elfové (nominative plural)
elfa (genitive singular)
elfů (genitive plural)
elfovi (dative singular)
elfu (dative singular)
elfům (dative plural)
elfa (accusative singular)
elfy (accusative plural)
elfe (singular vocative)
elfové (plural vocative)
elfovi (locative singular)
elfu (locative singular)
elfech (locative plural)
elfem (instrumental singular)
elfy (instrumental plural)


elf

nl-noun

elf m (plural elfen or elven, diminutive elfje n, feminine elve or elfin)

elfen (plural)
elven (plural)
elfje (diminutive neuter)
elve (feminine)
elfin (feminine)

→ Papiamentu: èlfye (from the diminutive)

Borrowed from German Elf, itself borrowed from English elf, from Old English ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Displaced native alf, from the same Germanic source.

(fantasy) elf (humanoid pointy-eared creature in fantasy)


elf

head

elf m (masculine plural elf, feminine singular elfa, feminine plural elfe)

elf (masculine plural)
elfa (feminine singular)
elfe (feminine plural)


elf

English: elf (see there for further descendants)

Scots: elf

Yola: elf

From Old English elf, Anglian form of ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”).

Scho was so faire & so fresche · as faucon hire semed, / An elfe out of an-othire erde · or ellis an Aungell

c. 1450, Wars of Alexander, Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, passus 24, line 5258:

She was so fair and beautiful; her elegance seemed like / An elf out of another world, or else an angel.

he was takyn with an elfe / I saw it myself / when the clok stroke twelf / was he forshapyn

c. 1450, “The Second Shepherds' Play”, in The Towneley Plays, Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, line 616:

He was taken by an elf; I saw it myself. / When the clock struck twelve, he was transfigured.


elf

elfik (diminutive)
elf (nominative singular)
elfy (nominative plural)
elfa (genitive singular)
elfów (genitive plural)
elfowi (dative singular)
elfom (dative plural)
elfa (accusative singular)
elfy (accusative plural)
elfem (instrumental singular)
elfami (instrumental plural)
elfie (locative singular)
elfach (locative plural)
elfie (singular vocative)
elfy (plural vocative)


chaos

en-noun

chaos (usually uncountable, plural chaoses)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “vast chasm, void”). Doublet of gas, which was borrowed through Dutch.
In Early Modern English, used in the sense of the original Greek word. In the meaning "primordial matter" from the 16th century. Figurative usage in the sense "confusion, disorder" from the 17th century. The technical sense in mathematics and science dates from the 1960s.

bor

(fantasy) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.


mer

There are mermaids and mermen everywhere. They swim above us and linger in nooks and arched doorways. It's impossible not to stare. The mer are as diverse as humans—all ages, size, shape, and color.

2013, Missy Fleming, Into the Deep, page 65:


kappa

en-noun

kappa (countable and uncountable, plural kappas)

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κάππα (káppa), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *kapp- (“palm, hand”). Doublet of kaph.

lbor

(finance) A measurement of the sensitivity of the value of an option to changes in the implied volatility of the price of the underlying asset.


kappa

It was not quite possible for a kappa to go pale, but this one managed, shrinking partly into its shell.

2013, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, Kitsune-Mochi: Kitsune Tales #2, page 94:

(Japanese mythology) A tortoise-like demon or imp.


kappa

kappa (nominative singular)
kappy (nominative plural)
kappy (genitive singular)
kapp (genitive plural)
kappie (dative singular)
kappom (dative plural)
kappę (accusative singular)
kappy (accusative plural)
kappą (instrumental singular)
kappami (instrumental plural)
kappie (locative singular)
kappach (locative plural)
kappo (singular vocative)
kappy (plural vocative)

(Japanese mythology) kappa (tortoise-like demon or imp)


fe

feet (definite singular)
fe (indefinite plural)
fea (definite plural)
feene (definite plural)

From Old Norse fé, from Proto-Germanic *fehu.


fe

feet (definite singular)
fe (indefinite plural)
fea (definite plural)

From Old Norse fé, from Proto-Germanic *fehu, from Proto-Indo-European *péḱu. Cognates include English fee.


驨

a mythical beast like a horse with a deer's antler


鯪

(obsolete, mythology) legendary fish with human-like face and hands


鯤

CJKV/code

Sino-Xenic (鯤):
* → Japanese: 鯤(こん) (kon)
* → Korean: 곤(鯤) (gon)
* → Vietnamese: côn (鯤)

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kuːn): semantic 魚 (“fish”) + phonetic 昆 (OC *kuːn).
; “fish roe”
; “kun (sea monster)”

Han compound

The size of the kun, I do not know how many thousand li it is.

鯤之大，不知其幾千里也。

鲲之大，不知其几千里也。

(Chinese mythology) kun, a large fish that transforms into a roc (鵬／鹏 (péng))


鴸

a mythical bird resembling an owl with human hands, said to bring bad luck


鯱

Synonym of 松毬魚 (matsukasa-uo, “Japanese pinecone fish}, Monocentris japonica”)


鵺

其時上下手々に火をともいて、これを御らんじみ給ふに、かしらは猿、むくろは狸、尾はくちなは、手足は虎の姿なり。なく聲鵼にぞにたりける。おそろしなどもをろか也。[...]去る應保のころほひ、二条院御在位の時、鵼といふ化鳥禁中にないて、しば々々宸襟をなやます事ありき。[...]ころはさ月廿日あまりの、まだよひの事なるに、鵼たゞ一聲おとづれて、二聲ともなかざりけり。[...]頼政はかりことに、まづおほかぶらをとてつがひ、鵼の聲しつる内裏のうへへぞいあげたる。鵼かぶらのをとにおどろいて、虚空にしばしひゝめいたり。二の矢に小鏑ととつがひ、ひふつとゐきて、鵼とかぶらとならべて前にぞおとしたる。[...]頼政にかづけ給ふとて、「昔の養由は雲の外の鴈をいき。今の頼政は雨のうちに鵼をゐたり」とぞ感ぜられける。

a mystical creature with the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki, the tail of a snake, and the legs of a tiger; similar to a chimera


鶬

(Chinese mythology) a kind of mythological bird


鸓

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *rul, *rulʔ): phonetic 畾 (OC *ruːl, “bird”) + semantic 鳥.

Han compound

(Chinese mythology) a bird with two heads and four legs that resembles the magpie


鵬

CJKV/code

Sino-Xenic (鵬):
* → Korean: 붕(鵬) (bung)
* → Vietnamese: bằng (鵬)

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *bɯːŋ) and ideogrammic compound (會意／会意): phonetic 朋 (OC *bɯːŋ, “phoenix”) + semantic 鳥 (“bird”)
This has been related to 風 (OC *plum, “wind”) (Schuessler, 2007) and also by Wang (1982) to 鳳 (OC *bums, “male fenghuang”).

Han compound

I don't know how many thousand li the Pengʹs back is.

鵬之背，不知其幾千里也。

鹏之背，不知其几千里也。

(Chinese mythology) peng (enormous bird)


鸞

luan (mythical bird related to the fenghuang; sometimes translated as simurgh)


鬼

CJKV/code

Sino-Xenic (鬼):
* → Japanese: 鬼(き) (ki)
* → Korean: 귀(鬼) (gwi)
* → Vietnamese: quỷ (鬼)

→ Thai: กุ๊ย (gúi)

Characters in the same phonetic series (鬼) (Zhengzhang, 2003)
Pictogram (象形) – a kneeling man or figure with an ugly face (甶). The ugly face could be a mask. The lower right “dot” is a small 厶; it is a residual tail that was added later – compare 离. Related to 畏 (variant 𠂽), which originally depicts a ghost standing with a stick in hand.
Compare 異 (“different, strange”), in which the 田 also derives from a face and indicates a mask. Compare also 禺, in which the top component represents either a mask or a monkey's head.
Unknown. May be related to:
* 威 (OC *qul, “to overawe, to terrorise”) with k-nominalisation and endoactive tone B, lit. "the thing which is doing the overawing" (Childs-Johnson, 1995 apud Schuessler, 2007; Baxter & Sagart, 2014), or
* 歸 (OC *klul, “to return”) (Shuowen Jiezi https://ctext.org/shuo-wen-jie-zi/gui-bu?searchu=%E6%AD%B8&searchmode=showall#result; Liezi https://ctext.org/liezi/tian-rui?searchu=%E9%AC%BC%E6%AD%B8%E4%B9%9F&searchmode=showall#result; Carr, 1985 apud Schuessler, 2007), yet Baxter & Sagart (2014) consider this connection, while semantically plausible, to be a folk etymology; as 鬼 (OC *k-ʔujʔ) and 歸 (OC *[k]ʷəj) had different Old Chinese rhymes & thus were likely unrelated.
See also 詭 (OC *krolʔ, “to deceive; peculiar”).

Han etyl

這房子常常鬧鬼。

这房子常常闹鬼。

人之鬼，非人也。

They prepare the ancestral temple (to receive the tablet of the departed), and there they present offerings to the disembodied spirit.

Classic of Filial Piety, circa 475 – 221 BCE

為之宗廟，以鬼享之。

为之宗庙，以鬼享之。

ghost; apparition; spirit (Classifier: 隻／只)

小鬼

機靈鬼

机灵鬼


fireball

en-verb

fireball (third-person singular simple present fireballs, present participle fireballing, simple past and past participle fireballed)

fireballs (present singular third-person)
fireballing (participle present)
fireballed (participle past)
fireballed (past)

/ˈfaɪəɹˌbɔl/

Chelyabinsk meteor
Nevada Test Site
Operation Upshot–Knothole

The noun is derived from fire (noun) + ball (noun). The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.

(transitive, fiction, chiefly fantasy, science fiction) To attack (someone or something) with balls of fire.

hyökätä tulipalloin

to attack (someone or something) with balls of fire


draconian

en-adj

draconian (comparative more draconian, superlative most draconian)

more draconian (comparative)
most draconian (superlative)

From Latin Dracō (stem Dracōn-) + -ian, from Ancient Greek Δράκων (Drákōn), after the Athenian lawmaker Draco, known for making harsh laws. See δράκων (drákōn, “dragon”).

The Soviet regime was draconian.

The mayor announced draconian budget cuts today.

The conflict in the countryside resulted in a far more draconian punishment. The Southern Cross flag flew over the camps of striking shearers, who in revenge for their victimisation burned grass, fences, buildings and even riverboats[…]

2009, Stuart Macintyre, A Concise History of Australia, page 125:

Perhaps lessons had already been learned from the Draconian infrastructure cuts on the Waterloo-Exeter route.

2020 April 8, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was at risk”, in Rail, page 65:

And that movement, while it was eventually crushed through the extensive use of the draconian lese majeste law, shattered the taboo, by calling openly, for the first time, for the powers and financing of the monarchy to be accountable.

2023 May 8, Jonathan Head, “Thailand election: The young radicals shaking up politics”, in BBC News (World):


mail

en-noun

mail (usually uncountable, plural mails)

From Middle English mayle (“mail armor”), borrowed from Old French maille (“loop, stitch”), from Vulgar Latin *macla, from Latin macula (“blemish, mesh”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *smh₁-tleh₂, from *smeh₁- (“smear, rub”).

thurak

armour consisting of metal rings or plates linked together

(uncountable, by extension, now fiction, fantasy) Armour consisting of small plates linked together.


龍

ja-noun

龍(りゅう) • (ryū)

a 家紋 (kamon, “family crest”) with a Chinese dragon design


龍

ja-pos

龍(りゅう) • (Ryū)

(astronomy) Short for りゅう座 (Ryūza): the constellation Draco


Python

From Ancient Greek Πύθων (Púthōn), from Πῡθώ (Pūthṓ), the early name of Delphi, from πύθω (púthō, “to rot, to decay”).
The programming language is named after Monty Python.

Here Apollo killed a serpent called the Python, and established a great prophetic shrine. Sometimes it is said that the Titaness Themis had the shrine before him, and this, as well as the killing of the Python, suggests that Apollo took over a place already of religious significance, associated with chthonic (i.e., earth) powers.

1995, Gordon MacDonald Kirkwood, A Short Guide to Classical Mythology, page 11:

It would seem, therefore, that what we have on the Phasian phiale is the Python coiled round the omphalos.[…]Paintings on Greek pottery and coins have preserved many an example of gods seated on an omphalos, including those of Apollo, Nike, Asclepius and others.⁴¹³ Python on the omphalos must have carried some symbolic meaning.

2000, Otar Lordkipanidze, Phasis: The River and City in Colchis, page 70:

Python, says Bailey, is derived from Putho to putrify, and the serpent Python being slain by Apollo, is thus interpreted: by Python is understood the ruin of the waters; Apollo slew this serpent with his arrows; that is, the beams of the sun dispersed the noxious vapours, which destroyed man like a devouring serpent.

2005, M. A. Dwight, Taylor Lewis, Grecian and Roman Mythology, page 183:

(Greek mythology) The earth-dragon of Delphi, represented as a serpent, killed by Apollo.

programming language
programming language

(computing) An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language invented by Guido van Rossum.


Python

John Cleese is perhaps the best-known of the Pythons.

(informal) Any member of the comedy troupe Monty Python: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones or Michael Palin.


antelope

→ Irish: antalóp

→ Manx: antelope

From Middle English antelope, from Old French antelop, from Medieval Latin antilops, from Byzantine Greek ἀνθόλοψ (anthólops), which is of obscure origin.

(archaic, mythology) A fierce legendary creature said to live on the banks of the Euphrates, having long serrated horns and being hard to catch.


demo

(computing) demo (a software edition of limited functionality)


demo

pt-adj

demo m or f (plural demos, not comparable)

(computing, of a software) of limited functionality


poltergeist

poltergeist (nominative singular)
poltergeisty (nominative plural)
poltergeista (genitive singular)
poltergeistów (genitive plural)
poltergeistowi (dative singular)
poltergeistom (dative plural)
poltergeista (accusative singular)
poltergeisty (accusative plural)
poltergeistem (instrumental singular)
poltergeistami (instrumental plural)
poltergeiście (locative singular)
poltergeistach (locative plural)
poltergeiście (singular vocative)
poltergeisty (plural vocative)

Unadapted borrowing from German Poltergeist.

ubor

(parapsychology) poltergeist (unseen ghost which makes noises and causes disruption, especially by causing physical objects to move or fly about)


haunt

en-verb

haunt (third-person singular simple present haunts, present participle haunting, simple past and past participle haunted)

haunts (present singular third-person)
haunting (participle present)
haunted (participle past)
haunted (past)

From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English hāmettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjaną (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village”).
Cognate with Old English hǣman (“to cohabit, lie with, marry”); related to Old English hām (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.

cog

A couple of ghosts haunt the old, burnt-down house.

You wrong me Sir,thus ſtill to haunt my houſe.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 52, column 1:

Foul spirits haunt my resting place.

1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC:

those cares that haunt the court and town

1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII:

(transitive) To inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).

[…]haunte thi silf to pite [or pitee].

c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume I (in Middle English), Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, I. Timothy 4:7, columns 1, 2:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.

Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.

a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To practise; to devote oneself to.


haunt

The lofty mountains roſe faint to the ſight and loſt their foreheads in the diſtant ſkies: the little hills, cloathed in darker green and ſkirted with embroidered vales, diſcovered the ſecret haunts of kids and bounding roes.

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:


doppelganger

/ˈdɒp(ə)lˌɡɛŋə/

/ˈdɑp(ə)lˌɡɛŋəɹ/

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

Borrowed from German Doppelgänger (“ghostly spirit”, literally “double-walker”).

bor

A ghostly double of a living person, especially one that haunts such a person.

(fantasy) A monster that takes the forms of people, usually after killing them.


doppelganger

(fantasy) doppelganger (ghostly double of a living person)


muggle

See Muggle. The verb sense (“to deface a geocache”) derives from the fact that people interfering with such items are assumed not to be geocachers: see the noun sense 1.2.1.

The magical and the muggle are separated by a river, wide and deep. I could see across, but I couldn't get across, [...].

2005, Christine Wicker, Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America, New York, N.Y.: HarperSanFrancisco, →ISBN, page 194:

As it was nearing Halloween, we were able to join a potions class where we could change liquids into myriad colours with the addition of substances like dragon spit (muggle’s lemon juice).

2007 November 11, Lesley Oldfield, “Family break a eureka moment”, in Sunday Sun, Newcastle upon Tyne: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC:

There's another guy playing [Bob] Dylan as a formal poet facing some kind of muggle inquisition, but this is the movie's briefest and least consequential thread.

2007 November 21, Gary Thompson, “Dylan divided by six”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Alternative letter-case form of Muggle
A person who has no magical abilities.

Some activists might know little of this ‘exterior’, such is their facility to move between activist spaces and places without having to encounter the ever-increasingly one-dimensional world in which the ‘muggles’ live.

2005, David Harvie, Ben Trott, Keir Milburn, editors, Shut Them Down!: The G8, Gleneagles 2005 and the Movement of Movements, Leeds, West Yorkshire: Dissent!; Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Autonomedia, →ISBN, page 343:

(by extension) A person who lacks a particular ability or skill; a non-specialist; also, a person who is not a member of a group; an outsider.

Try not to let the muggles see you find a Cache.

2006, Wisconsin Natural Resources, Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 89:

Use Stealth. Commonly used in a place with a high muggle-to-geocacher ratio.

2010, Paul Gillin, Dana Gillin, “Appendix A: Glossary”, in The Joy of Geocaching […], Fresno, Calif.: Quill Driver Books, →ISBN, page 235:

Each time we made a find [Teresa] Hinton would check there were no muggles, or non-geocachers, around before taking the container from its hiding place.

2016 February 16, Selina Powell, “The hidden world of geocaching in Marlborough”, in Marlborough Express (reproduced on Stuff), Blenheim, New Zealand: Stuff, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-05-16:

Caches can be hidden in a disguised container, or very small package, and one element of difficulty is hiding caches in urban locations, where the hunter will have to avoid being spotted by ‘muggles’ – the name given to those unaware of the sport. Muggles will be surprised at the scale of the secret game taking place under their noses.

2018 February 6, Joseph Smith, “The ‘dead drop’ in Stokes Croft may be more than it appears”, in Bristol Post, Bristol, Somerset: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-02-10:

(geocaching, specifically) A person not involved in the pastime of geocaching.


nanus

la-noun

nānus m (genitive nānī); second declension

nānus (canonical masculine)
nānī (genitive)
nānus (nominative singular)
nānī (nominative plural)
nānī (genitive singular)
nānōrum (genitive plural)
nānō (dative singular)
nānīs (dative plural)
nānum (accusative singular)
nānōs (accusative plural)
nānō (ablative singular)
nānīs (ablative plural)
nāne (singular vocative)
nānī (plural vocative)

Asturian: nanu

Catalan: nan

→ English: nano-

French: nain

Galician: anano

Italian: nano

Portuguese: anão

Romanian: nan

Sardinian: nanu

Sicilian: nanu

Spanish: enano

Borrowed from Ancient Greek νᾶνος (nânos, “dwarf”).


Quenya

From Noldorin Quenya Quenya, ultimately derived from the Primitive Quendian root *kwene ("person"), being the name for the language invented by J. R. R. Tolkien as the language spoken by the Elves in his books.

constructed language
constructed language

A constructed language created by J. R. R. Tolkien modelled on Greek, Latin and Finnish.


witch

The noun is from Middle English wicche, from Old English wiċċe (“witch (female), sorceress”) and wiċċa (“witch (male), sorcerer, warlock”), deverbative from wiċċian (“to practice sorcery”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkōną (compare West Frisian wikje, wikke (“to foretell, warn”), German Low German wicken (“to soothsay”), Dutch wikken, wichelen (“to dowse, divine”)), from Proto-Indo-European *wik-néh₂-, derivation of *weyk- (“to consecrate; separate”); akin to Latin victima (“sacrificial victim”), Lithuanian viẽkas (“life-force”), Sanskrit विनक्ति (vinákti, “to set apart, separate out”). Possibly related to wicked; see that entry for more.
The verb is from the noun.

cog

(geometry) A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.


centaurus

la-noun

centaurus m (genitive centaurī); second declension

centaurī (genitive)
centaurus (nominative singular)
centaurī (nominative plural)
centaurī (genitive singular)
centaurōrum (genitive plural)
centaurō (dative singular)
centaurīs (dative plural)
centaurum (accusative singular)
centaurōs (accusative plural)
centaurō (ablative singular)
centaurīs (ablative plural)
centaure (singular vocative)
centaurī (plural vocative)

Catalan: centaure

English: centaur

French: centaure

Galician: centauro

Italian: centauro

Portuguese: centauro

Romanian: centaur

Spanish: centauro

[kɛn̪ˈt̪äu̯rʊs̠]

From Ancient Greek κένταυρος (kéntauros, “centaur”), from Κένταυρος (Kéntauros, “a savage race, dwelling between Pelion and Ossa”).


turn

en-verb

turn (third-person singular simple present turns, present participle turning, simple past and past participle turned or (obsolete) turnt)

turns (present singular third-person)
turning (participle present)
turned (participle past)
turned (past)
turnt (obsolete participle past)
turnt (obsolete past)
turn (infinitive)

From Middle English turnen, from Old English turnian, tyrnan (“to turn, rotate, revolve”) and Old French torner (“to turn”), both from Latin tornāre (“to round off, turn in a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”), from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “turning-lathe: a tool used for making circles”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, rub by turning, turn, twist, bore”). Cognate with Old English þrāwan (“to turn, twist, wind”), whence English throw. Displaced native Middle English wenden from Old English wendan (see wend), and Middle English trenden from Old English trendan (see trend), among several other terms.

lyödä kierre

in cricket, make the ball move sideways when it bounces

kiertää

of a cricket ball, move sideways when it bounces

-ul

e.g. “turn yellow”: sárga → sárgul, “turn brown”: barna → barnul

How long ago was he turned?

His companions had turned him on purpose. Annie, bless her heart, was immune.

2017, Michael J. Totten, Into the Wasteland: A Zombie Novel:

(intransitive or transitive) To change condition or attitude.

To change fundamentally; to metamorphose.

(transitive, fantasy) To change (a person) into a vampire, werewolf, zombie, etc.

Bruce Banner turns when he is angry: he becomes the Hulk, an incredibly powerful green monster.

(intransitive, fantasy) To transform into a vampire, werewolf, zombie, etc.


picus

la-noun

pīcus m (genitive pīcī); second declension

pīcus (canonical masculine)
pīcī (genitive)
pīcus (nominative singular)
pīcī (nominative plural)
pīcī (genitive singular)
pīcōrum (genitive plural)
pīcō (dative singular)
pīcīs (dative plural)
pīcum (accusative singular)
pīcōs (accusative plural)
pīcō (ablative singular)
pīcīs (ablative plural)
pīce (singular vocative)
pīcī (plural vocative)

Asturian: picatueru

Catalan: picot

French: pic, pivert

Friulian: pic

desc

Piedmontese: pic, pions, picons, picassa

Galician: piquelo, peto (perhaps)

Italian: picchio

Occitan: picot

Sicilian: picu

Spanish: pito, pico

Translingual: Picus

From Proto-Italic *pikos, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker; magpie”), whence also Latin pīca (“magpie”).
Romance evidence points to a form with -cc-, perhaps onomatopoeic and/or influenced by Vulgar Latin *pīccāre (“to strike, sting, peck”) and/or Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick”). Cf. Vulgar Latin *pīcca (“pick-axe”).
Cognate with Umbrian peico (acc.sg.), Sanskrit पिक (piká, “cuckoo”), German Specht (“woodpecker”), Swedish spett (“crowbar, skewer; kind of woodpecker”).

onomatopoeic

onomatopoeic

pīcca

reconstructed, Western Romance territory


drake

From Middle English drake (“dragon; Satan”), from Old English draca (“dragon, sea monster, huge serpent”), from Proto-West Germanic *drakō (“dragon”), from Latin dracō (“dragon”), from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “serpent, giant seafish”), from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “I see clearly”). Compare Middle Dutch drake and German Drache. Doublet of dragon.


drake

Dutch: draak
Afrikaans: draak

Limburgish: draagk, draogk

West Flemish: droake

From Old Dutch *drako, an early Germanic borrowing of Latin dracō (“dragon”).


drake

English: drake

Inherited from Old English draca, from Proto-West Germanic *drakō, from Latin dracō, from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn). Doublet of dragoun.


nix

From German nix, colloquial form of nichts (“nothing”). Compare also Dutch niks (“nothing”), informal for niets (“nothing”). More at naught.

"That's a clean lift from Kipling—or is it Conan Doyle? Anyway, I've read something just like it before. Say, kid, guess what these magazine guys get for a full page ad.? Nix. That's just like a woman. Three thousand straight. Fact."

1912, Edna Ferber, “Maymeys from Cuba”, in Buttered Side Down:

"I can take you down, Miss Conover, but I cannot take Mr. Hawksley. When the boss gives me an order I obey it—if I possibly can. On the day the boss tells me you can go strolling, I'll give you the key to the city. Until then, nix! No use arguing, Mr. Hawksley."

1920, Harold MacGrath, chapter 26, in The Drums of Jeopardy:


nymphe

la-noun

nymphē f (genitive nymphēs); first declension

nymphē (canonical feminine)
nymphēs (genitive)
nymphē (nominative singular)
nymphae (nominative plural)
nymphēs (genitive singular)
nymphārum (genitive plural)
nymphae (dative singular)
nymphīs (dative plural)
nymphēn (accusative singular)
nymphās (accusative plural)
nymphē (ablative singular)
nymphīs (ablative plural)
nymphē (singular vocative)
nymphae (plural vocative)

From Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride, nymph”).


hydra

en-noun

hydra (plural hydras or hydrae or hydræ)

hydras (plural)
hydrae (plural)
hydræ (plural)

After the Hydra, from Greek mythology, which grew two new heads every time one of its heads was cut off. The biology sense alludes to the budding method of asexual reproduction that the hydra practices, similar to growing new heads. The figurative sense refers to how the creature could not be killed by a swift, decisive solution (in contrast to a Gordian knot).

(fantasy) A dragon-like creature with many heads and the ability to regrow them when maimed.


hydra

hydra (nominative singular)
hydry (nominative plural)
hydry (genitive singular)
hyder (genitive plural)
hydře (dative singular)
hydrám (dative plural)
hydru (accusative singular)
hydry (accusative plural)
hydro (singular vocative)
hydry (plural vocative)
hydře (locative singular)
hydrách (locative plural)
hydrou (instrumental singular)
hydrami (instrumental plural)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὕδρα (húdra). Doublet of vydra.

bor+

Král nařizoval, aby Herakles zabil hydru, která děsila lidi a ničila kraj kolem města Lernu.

2010, Jana Eislerová, Staré řecké báje a pověsti, Fragment, →ISBN, page 21:

The king ordered Herakles to kill Hydra, which had been frightening people and destroying the land around the city of Lerna.

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology, singular only) Hydra, a mythological serpent with seven heads


hydra

hydra (nominative singular)
hydry (nominative plural)
hydry (genitive singular)
hydr (genitive plural)
hydrze (dative singular)
hydrom (dative plural)
hydrę (accusative singular)
hydry (accusative plural)
hydrą (instrumental singular)
hydrami (instrumental plural)
hydrze (locative singular)
hydrach (locative plural)
hydro (singular vocative)
hydry (plural vocative)

Learned borrowing from Latin hydra. Doublet of nutria and wydra.

(fantasy) hydra (dragon-like creature with many heads and the ability to regrow them when maimed)


manticore

/ˈmæntɪˌkɔɹ/

From Latin mantichōras, from Ancient Greek μαρτιχόρας (martikhóras, “man-eater; tiger”), from Old Persian *martyahvārah (“man-eater”), from 𐎶𐎼𐎫𐎡𐎹 (m-r-t-i-y /martyaʰ/, “man”).

der

Now may I present to you the basilisk?
Please down your goggles if you wish to resist
From the fiery depths of the planet’s core
The never sleeping for want of eating unholy stench of the manticore

2005, “Circus Maximus”, performed by Clutch:

(Greek mythology) A beast with the body of a lion (usually red), the tail of a scorpion, and the head/face of a man with a mouth filled with multiple rows of sharp teeth (like a shark), said to be able to shoot spikes from its tail or mane to paralyse prey. It may be horned, winged, or both; its voice is described as a mixture of pipes and trumpets.


urchin

From Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog; sea urchin”), from Old Northern French irechon, from Vulgar Latin *ērīciōnem, from Latin ericius. Compare modern French hérisson, whence the English doublet herisson.

(historical) A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.


ser

A Song of Ice and Fire
George R. R. Martin

From Middle English ser. Popularised in modern fantasy by George R. R. Martin in the A Song of Ice and Fire series starting in 1996.

Would ser care to dine this evening?

"Ser Willem is a good man and true,” said Ser Oswell.
“But not of the Kingsguard,” Ser Gerold pointed out.

1996, George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One, Bantam, →ISBN:

Lady Mary – the Queen's handmaiden – was Ser Gawain's lady; her veil fluttered from his shoulder.

2014 January 16, Miles Cameron, The Fell Sword, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

You don't strike me as an ordinary soldier, are you perchance Ser Lancelot Germaine of the Round Table?

2023 July 21, Ivan Lekoski, Invictus, Austin Macauley Publishers, →ISBN:

(archaic, now chiefly fantasy) Alternative spelling of sir


chortle

Perhaps a blend of chuckle + snort. Coined by Lewis Carroll in his poem Jabberwocky, completed in 1855 but only introduced to the public in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass.

A similar sounding vocalisation of various birds.


alce

Ar. a fesse betw. three alces’ or griffins’ heads erased sa.

1842, John Burke, John Bernard Burke, A General Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, London: […] Edward Churton, […]:

Alce. The Male Griffin. […] Alice, or Alce. The Male Gryphon.

[1889, Charles Norton Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry with Upwards of Two Thousand Five Hundred Illustrations, London: Kent & Cᵒ […]; East Dereham: W. H. Brown, […], page 4, column 2:

XV. CHARGES taken from MONSTERS. Monsters with Wings. Griffin. Dragon. Alce. Opinicus. […] Alce. See Griffin. […] The term Alce is given, as if used by writers for a kind of griffin, but no example can be quoted.

[1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, new edition, Oxford, Oxon, London: James Parker and Co., pages xvii, 9, and 294:

[…] griffin seems to have an existence in theory only; nevertheless he must be catalogued, together with the word alce, which is accepted (though not without dissent) as the individual name for the horned griffin.

[1963, Julian Franklyn, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry, 2nd edition, MacGibbon & Kee, page 149:

Infrequently, a griffin is portrayed without wings; in 15th-century and later heraldry such a beast may be called an ‘alce’ or a ‘keythong.’

[2001, Osita Iroku, A Day in the Life of God, →ISBN, page 85:

Folks gave the beast many names. Griffin, griffon, gryphon, alce, keythong, gryphen, griffen, gryphen, and opinicus…

[2009, Benjamin Towe, The First Wandmaker (Elfdreams of Parallan; II), Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 20:

"It has no wings! I thought that griffins were lions with an eagle head and wings." / "I'm sure that this female Alce doesn't prefer to be called 'it,'" Ryu said pointedly. / "Alce?" / "Yes. A so-called wingless griffin. But they are two different creatures."

2009, Nicole Zoltack, Woman of Honor (The Kingdom of Arnhem; 1), Newhall, Calif.: Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc., →ISBN:

The more common representation of the griffin is the female griffin, a creature with wings. Male griffins do NOT have wings and are termed “alces” or “keythongs.”

[2009 June, The Celator, volume 23, number 6:

They’d befriended him because he fed them the tastiest morsels, Alce, the gilded griffin, preferred Marvel while Keythong, the agate stone one, craved DC Comics.

2010, Shirin Dubbin, Dreams’ Dark Kiss, Carina Press, Harlequin Enterprises, →ISBN:

figure 11 Cloven-hoofed, wingless griffin (also called an alce or a keythong in later heraldry) symbolizing the sun, and two-legged dragon (wyvern) symbolizing the moon.

[2011, Marc Michael Epstein, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 58:

Alce / Variations: Anthalops, Alcida, Calopus, Keythong, Panthalops, Tapopus / In heraldic symbology the alce is a wingless, male griffin with rays or spikes of gold protruding from several parts of its body; on occasion it also sports two long straight horns atop its head. A pair of such creatures is present on the coat of arms of the Earl of Ormande.

2016, Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 22, column 1:

Adventurer’s Tip: Do not confuse [the griffin] with similar hybrids, such as the alce (a wingless griffin) or the alphyn (a lion with eagle claws for front legs).

2019, Blanca Martínez de Rituerto, Joe Sparrow, Dungeons & Drawings: An Illustrated Compendium of Creatures, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN:

(rare, mythology) A mythical beast resembling a griffin with no wings, often classified as a male griffin.


griffin

Chinese Pidgin English: griffin

From Middle English griffoun, from Old French griffon, from Latin gryphus, from Ancient Greek γρύψ (grúps).

A large vulture (Gyps fulvus) found in the mountainous parts of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, supposed to be the "eagle" of the Bible.


hippogriff

From French hippogriffe, from Ancient Greek ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) + γρύψ (grúps, “griffin”).

af

To talk of being able to ride with stirrups, is trifling: get on Pegasus, bestride the hippogryph, or mount the white nag in the Revelation.

1732, July 18, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., volume 12 published 1801, page 478

Je crains done qu'il faudra que nous nous contentions de quelque moyen plus simple et plus facile, comme d'un enchanteur à gages, un hippogriffe, ou au moins de quelque génie bienfaisant, …
So I doubt we must be content with some more simple and easy method, such as a magician in our pay, a hippogryph, or at least some kind genius, …

1753, November 12, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, published with English translation in 1779 in Miscellaneous Works of the Late Philip Dormer Stanhope, second edition, volume 3, lettre LXXIII, pages 298–299

Yet the work is surely not a mere map of the hippogryffon wanderings of some disordered imagination…

1800 Dec, Sir Richard Phillips, The Monthly magazine, volume 10, number 66, page 407:

I imagine a Hippogryph. The Hippogryph is at once the object of the act and the act itself. Abstract the one, the other has no existence: deny me the consciousness of the Hippogryph, you deny me the consciousness of the imagination; I am conscious of zero; I am not conscious at all.

1831, The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume 52, page 164:

Oceanus himself follows on a hippogriff, and counsels Prometheus to submit to Zeus.

1908, Edmund Doidge Anderson Morshead, Four Plays of Aeschylus, Introduction, page xiv:

a mythical beast, half griffin and half horse, supposedly the offspring of a griffin and a filly.


chupacabras

→ English: chupacabra, chupacabras

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


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)


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.

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”).

der

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.


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.


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.


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.


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)


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.


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)


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).

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.


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

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.


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)
un dragon (accusative indefinite nominative singular)
dragonul (accusative definite nominative singular)
dragoni (accusative indefinite nominative plural)
niște dragoni (accusative indefinite nominative plural)
dragonii (accusative definite nominative plural)
dragon (dative genitive indefinite singular)
unui dragon (dative genitive indefinite singular)
dragonului (dative definite genitive singular)
dragoni (dative genitive indefinite plural)
unor dragoni (dative genitive indefinite plural)
dragonilor (dative definite genitive 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”).


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”).

<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”).


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.


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

→ Danish: gnom

→ English: gnome

→ Norwegian Bokmål: gnom

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: gnom

From New Latin gnomus, not attested classically. .


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.


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

Unadapted borrowing 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

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

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


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)


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.


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.


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.

der

(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.

daimon

now chiefly in reference to the ancient Greek spirit