"soucouyant" meaning in English

See soucouyant in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /suːkuːˈjɑ̃/ Forms: soucouyants [plural]
Etymology: From West Indies Creole. Head templates: {{en-noun}} soucouyant (plural soucouyants)
  1. (Caribbean, folklore) A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly. Tags: Caribbean Categories (topical): Folklore Synonyms: soucriant Related terms: loogaroo
    Sense id: en-soucouyant-en-noun-90sqGLWg Categories (other): Caribbean English, English entries with incorrect language header Topics: arts, folklore, history, human-sciences, literature, media, publishing, sciences

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for soucouyant meaning in English (2.4kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From West Indies Creole.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "soucouyants",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "soucouyant (plural soucouyants)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Caribbean English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Folklore",
          "orig": "en:Folklore",
          "parents": [
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1986, Kenneth Ramchand, “Wayne Vincent Brown”, in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 90,\nWe can notice, for example, that “Vampire” combines the folkloric soucouyant (blood-sucking old woman in the shape of a ball of fire), a science fiction creature (“clammy, from its bed of hairs / And thirsty” [p. 24]), the moon again (Brown’s poems are obsessed by the moon); …"
        },
        {
          "text": "2002, David E. Jones, Evil in Our Midst: A Chilling Glimpse of the World's Most Feared and Frightening Demons, Square One Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 133,\nThe Soucouyant is an evil fire, a kind of witch, that robes itself entirely in the skin of an old woman to hide its true identity from neighbors."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Ken Douglas, Jack Stewart, Diamond Sky, Bootleg Press, page 110",
          "text": "“The soucouyant is an old woman that sheds her skin,” Beth said. “She flies out of her house and looks for human blood. When she finds it, she changes into an animal of some kind and sucks the blood away.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly."
      ],
      "id": "en-soucouyant-en-noun-90sqGLWg",
      "links": [
        [
          "folklore",
          "folklore"
        ],
        [
          "witch",
          "witch"
        ],
        [
          "fireball",
          "fireball"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Caribbean, folklore) A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "loogaroo"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "soucriant"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Caribbean"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "arts",
        "folklore",
        "history",
        "human-sciences",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/suːkuːˈjɑ̃/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "soucouyant"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From West Indies Creole.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "soucouyants",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "soucouyant (plural soucouyants)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "loogaroo"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Caribbean English",
        "English 3-syllable words",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Folklore"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1986, Kenneth Ramchand, “Wayne Vincent Brown”, in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 90,\nWe can notice, for example, that “Vampire” combines the folkloric soucouyant (blood-sucking old woman in the shape of a ball of fire), a science fiction creature (“clammy, from its bed of hairs / And thirsty” [p. 24]), the moon again (Brown’s poems are obsessed by the moon); …"
        },
        {
          "text": "2002, David E. Jones, Evil in Our Midst: A Chilling Glimpse of the World's Most Feared and Frightening Demons, Square One Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 133,\nThe Soucouyant is an evil fire, a kind of witch, that robes itself entirely in the skin of an old woman to hide its true identity from neighbors."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Ken Douglas, Jack Stewart, Diamond Sky, Bootleg Press, page 110",
          "text": "“The soucouyant is an old woman that sheds her skin,” Beth said. “She flies out of her house and looks for human blood. When she finds it, she changes into an animal of some kind and sucks the blood away.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "folklore",
          "folklore"
        ],
        [
          "witch",
          "witch"
        ],
        [
          "fireball",
          "fireball"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Caribbean, folklore) A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Caribbean"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "arts",
        "folklore",
        "history",
        "human-sciences",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/suːkuːˈjɑ̃/"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "soucriant"
    }
  ],
  "word": "soucouyant"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (384852d and db5a844). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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