stock

en-noun

stock (countable and uncountable, plural stocks or (obsolete) stocken)

stocks (plural)
stocken (obsolete plural)

→ Dutch: stock

desctree

→ French: stock
→ Romanian: stoc
→ Turkish: stok

→ Italian: stock

→ Portuguese: estoque

→ Spanish: stock

From Middle English stok, from Old English stocc, from Proto-West Germanic *stokk, from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz (“tree-trunk”), with modern senses mostly referring either to the trunk from which the tree grows (figuratively, its origin and/or support/foundation), or to a piece of wood, stick, or rod. The senses of "supply" and "raw material" arose from a probable conflation with steck (“an item of goods, merchandise”) or the use of split tally sticks consisting of foil or counterfoil and stock to capture paid taxes, debts or exchanges. Doublet of chock.

stark (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

(folklore) A piece of wood magically made to be just like a real baby and substituted for it by magical beings.


Bigfoot

August/September 1958, originally Big Foot, big + foot, relating to the large size of its supposed footprints relative to human footprints.

This imprint was made either Wednesday night or early Thursday morning by "Big Foot".

[1958 October 6, Andrew Genzoli, “Huge Foot Prints Hold Mystery Of Friendly Bluff Creek Giant”, in Humboldt Times, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2010-06-11:

Stories of “Bigfoot,” an eight-foot denizen of the forest in Northern California’s wild Trinity County, are among the main topics of conversation in that area. He is supposedly an Indian or half-breed who has reverted to an animal existence. A footprint believed to be his was measured by a Redding shoe store owner and found to be size 24!

1961 July 1, “Big deal”, in Boot and Shoe Recorder, volume 160, number 3, Philadelphia, Pa.: Chilton Company, →OCLC, The Last Word, page 68, column 3:

Some Earth people believe Bigfoot lives in underground caves; others believe Bigfoot is connected with extraterrestrials; still others believe Bigfoot is a spirit that can sometimes manifest in form.

1994, Sun Bear, Wabun Wind, Shawnodese, “A Dream Language of the Earth”, in Dreaming with the Wheel: How to Interpret and Work with your Dreams Using the Medicine Wheel, Fireside, →ISBN, page 145:

Then there are the sharp divisions of opinion about whether Bigfoot is a Gigantopithecus or a Neanderthal or some other hominid.

2016, Bryan Sykes, “The Guru”, in Bigfoot, Yeti, and the Last Neanderthal: A Geneticist’s Search for Modern Apemen, Disinformation Books, →ISBN, part II, page 173:

Many enthusiasts believe that Bigfoot is not some sort of undiscovered hominid, but rather a mystical being that moves between dimensions.

2019, Christopher D. Bader, Joseph O. Baker, “Bigfoot: Undiscovered Primate or Interdimensional Spirit?”, in Deviance Management: Insiders, Outsiders, Hiders, and Drifters, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 77:

(cryptozoology, folklore) A very large, hairy, humanoid creature, similar to the yeti, said to live in the wilderness areas of the United States and Canada, especially the Pacific Northwest.

بيغ فوت

unidentified yeti-like animal (individual creature)


Bigfoot

en-noun

Bigfoot (plural Bigfoot or Bigfeet or Bigfoots)

Bigfoot (plural)
Bigfeet (plural)
Bigfoots (plural)

My answer to those who believe that all Bigfoot are just huge cuddly Ewoks is to remind them that there is plenty of evidence that every member of the great apes family […] has exhibited hostility […].

2007, Matthew Scott Hansen, The Shadowkiller: A Novel, page 434:

The striking news on the appearance of a Bigfoot on Taibai Mountain in Xi'an, Shaanxi Provnice^([sic – meaning Province]) recently spread among local residents of Mei County located near the foot of Taibai Mountain. Is Taibai Mountain really home to a Bigfoot?
Who encountered the Bigfoot on Taibai Mountain?
Reporters interviewed many residents of Mei County, and their accounts varied.

2010 October 15, “Bigfoot sighted on Taibai Mountain”, in 叶欣, editor, People's Daily, archived from the original on 2015-05-23:

(cryptozoology, folklore) An individual creature of this type.


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.


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.


soul

en-noun

soul (countable and uncountable, plural souls)

→ German: Soul

→ Esperanto: soulo

→ French: soul

→ Hungarian: soul

→ Italian: soul

→ Japanese: ソウル

→ Polish: soul

→ Portuguese: soul

→ Romanian: soul

→ Scots: sowel

→ Spanish: soul

From Middle English soule, sowle, saule, sawle, from Old English sāwol (“soul, life, spirit, being”), from Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu, from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō (“soul”), of uncertain ultimate origin (see there for further information). Cognate with Scots saul, sowel (“soul”), North Frisian siel, sial (“soul”), Saterland Frisian Seele (“soul”), West Frisian siel (“soul”), Dutch ziel (“soul”), German Seele (“soul”) Scandinavian homonyms seem to have been borrowed from Old Saxon *siala. Modern Danish sjæl, Swedish själ, Norwegian sjel, Icelandic sál, Finnish sielu may have come from Old English sāwol.

inh

1836, Hans Christian Andersen (translated into English by Mrs. H. B. Paull in 1872), The Little Mermaid
"Among the daughters of the air," answered one of them. "A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny. But the daughters of the air, although they do not possess an immortal soul, can, by their good deeds, procure one for themselves.

No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:

Flowey: See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!

2015 September 15, Toby Fox, Undertale, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X:

(religion, folklore) The spirit or essence of a person usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and personality, often believed to live on after the person's death.

аԥсы

the spirit or essence of a person that is often believed to live on after the person's death


devil

Tok Pisin: tewel

→ Chuukese: tefin

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
Proto-Indo-European *dwísder.
Ancient Greek διά (diá)
Ancient Greek δια- (dia-)
Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der.
Ancient Greek βᾰ́λλω (bállō)
Ancient Greek διαβάλλω (diabállō)
Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos)bor.
Latin diabolusbor.
Proto-West Germanic *diubul
Old English dēofol
Middle English devel
English devil
From Middle English devil, devel, deovel, from Old English dēofol, dēoful, from earlier dīobul (“devil”), from Latin diabolus, ultimately from Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos, “false accuser, slanderer”), also as "Satan" (in Jewish/Christian usage, translating Biblical Hebrew שָׂטָן (śātān)), from διαβάλλω (diabállō, “to slander”), literally “to throw across”, from διά (diá, “through, across”) + βάλλω (bállō, “throw”). The Old English word was probably adopted under influence of Latin diabolus (itself from the Greek). Other Germanic languages adopted the word independently: compare Saterland Frisian Düüwel (“devil”), West Frisian duvel (“devil”), Dutch duivel, duvel (“devil”), German Low German Düvel (“devil”), German Teufel (“devil”), Bavarian Teifl (“devil”), Danish djævel (“devil”), Swedish djävul (“devil”) (older: djefvul, Old Swedish diævul, Old Norse djǫfull). Doublet of diable, diablo, and diabolus.

der

better the devil you know than the devil you don't know

better the devil you know than the one you don't know

devil is beating his wife and marrying his daughter

he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon

the devil we know is better than the devil we don't know

the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know

(folklore) A fictional image of a man, usually red or orange in skin color; with a set of horns on his head, a pointed goatee and a long tail and carrying a pitchfork; that represents evil and portrayed to children in an effort to discourage bad behavior.


brownie

en-noun

brownie (countable and uncountable, plural brownies)

→ Belarusian: бра́ўні (bráŭni)

→ Chinese: 布朗尼 (bùlǎngní)

→ French: brownie

→ German: Brownie

→ Hungarian: brownie

→ Irish: donnóg (calque)

→ Italian: brownie

→ Japanese: ブラウニー (buraunī)

→ Lithuanian: braunis

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: brownie

→ Polish: brownie

→ Portuguese: brownie

→ Russian: бра́уни (bráuni)

→ Kazakh: брауни (brauni)

→ Spanish: brownie

→ Thai: บราวนี (bpraao-níi)

→ Turkish: brownie, browni, brovni

→ Welsh: browni

From brown + -ie (diminutive suffix). In folkloric sense, originally Scots.

Thus, offer Brownie a piece of bread, a cup of drink, or a new coat and hood, and he flouted at it, and perhaps, in his huff, quitted the place for ever ; but leave a nice bowl of cream, and some fresh honeycomb, in a snug private corner, and they soon disappeared, though Brownie, it was to be supposed, never knew any thing of them.

1828, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, volume II, page 169:

"Oh, auntie, do you know what Stine says?" cried a little brown-eyed beauty; "she says I shall go with her into the hayloft to-night and give the brownie his Christmas porridge."

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 5:

1908, Dinah Craik, The Adventures of A Brownie:

Stories were told of a brownie riding horseback to fetch the midwife at childbirth or helping his master to win at checkers.

1985, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 1, page 636:

There are no brownies in my house, though. I know because there's always a pile of dishes in the sink.

2004, Justin Hocking, Jeffrey Knutson, Jared Jacang Maher, editors, Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End, page 37:

(folklore) A mythical creature, a helpful elf who would secretly do people's housework for them.


Santa Claus

Borrowed from Dutch Sinterklaas (“Saint Nicholas”).

bor+

Last Monday the Anniversary of St. Nicholas, otherwise called St. A Claus, was celebrated at Protestant-Hall.

1773 December 26, New York Gazette, p. 3

The noted St. Nicholas, vulgarly called Santaclaus—of all the saints in the kalendar the most venerated by true hollanders, and their unsophisticated descendants.

Here, too, the winter festivals are just commencing; and the toy-shops are full of dolls and gew-gaws for the Bifana, who acts here the same comedy for children that Santiclaus does in America.

1828 November, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, letter to his mother from Italy

This is one of the developments Karl Marx failed to predict. Had he foreseen it he might have expired in guffaws, rolling in the aisle of the British Museum Library amid the notes for Das Kapital, that bearded Santa Claus of the revolution who slipped the unwanted gift of communism down the world's chimneys.

1937 August, Lawrence Martin, "The Odyssey of a Bogeyman", Esquire, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 39

Emmeline: Oh Richard, you can't know everything. Only God knows everything.
Richard: God—He can't find us any better than Santa Claus.

1980, Douglas Day Stewart, The Blue Lagoon:

By 1900, department-store Santa Clauses were common – lodged in grottoes, cottages, and workshops or on thrones, they presided over a never-ending stream of children.

2005, Gerry Bowler, “Santa the Adman”, in Santa Claus: A Biography, McClelland & Stewart, →ISBN, page 142:

(folklore) A figure said to bring presents to people (especially children) at Christmas time.

Christkind

Christmas; different figure with same role


fairy ring

The idea of a ring where fairies danced was a traditional explanation for the fungal phenomenon before it was understood.

1914, "Rhys at the Fairy Dance" in Maud Keary, Enchanted Tulips and Other Verses for Children, Macmillan and Company, page 102,
Though many a year has passed away, / None have seen Rhys since that day! / Does he dance and does he sing / For ever in a Fairy Ring?

Welsh folklore also reveals few references to fairy rings but there is a fine example found in the legend "Rhys at the Fairy Dance" (collected in 1827) in which Rhys is lost but found again when several people venture to a nearby fairy ring.

1972, North Carolina Folklore Society, North Carolina Folklore Journal, Volumes 20-21: 1972-1973, page 51:

(folklore) A place where fairies congregate in a ring, particularly in order to dance.


troll

Partly:
* from Middle English trol (“demon (?); sorcerer (?)”) [and other forms], from Old Norse trǫll (“conjurer, mage; witch”), from Proto-Germanic *truzlą (“supernatural being; demon, fiend; giant; monster”), probably from *trudaną (“to step on; to tread”) + *-ilą (suffix forming agent nouns); and
* borrowed from Norwegian Bokmål troll, Swedish troll, or Danish trold, from Old Norse trǫll (see above).
Doublet of droll and trow.
cognates
* Danish fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”)
* Icelandic tröll
* Middle High German trol, trolle (“spook, wraith; ogre, monster”)
* Norwegian fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”)
* Swedish trolla (“to conjure”)

der

He followed their advice, and rode through a rye-field, where the Trolls were unable to follow him, but in their exasperation cried after him, "The red cock shall crow over thy dwelling." And behold! his house stood in a blaze.

1851, Benjamin Thorpe, “Norwegian Traditions. [The Girl at the Sæter.]”, in Northern Mythology, […], volumes II (Scandinavian Popular Traditions and Superstitions), London: Edward Lumley, […], →OCLC, page 7:

The Scandinavian fancied himself surrounded by Trolls,—a kind of goblin men, with vast power of work and skilful production,—divine stevedores, carpenters, reapers, smiths, and masons, swift to reward every kindness done them, with gifts of gold and silver.

1856, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Ability”, in English Traits, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, page 81:

The bear got so angry that he rushed at the trolls and scratched them all over, while Peter took the other handspike and hammered away at them as if he wanted to beat their brains out. The trolls had to clear out at last, but Peter stayed and enjoyed himself with all the Christmas fare the whole week. After that the trolls were not heard of there for many years.

1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “Peter Gynt”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 150:

In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens and trolls, there are traces of even older terrors, when the first Teuton settlers in Europe struggled with the aborigines who lived in caves, hints as elusive as the phantom heroes in the Saxon poems, and as unforgettable.

1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, “The Anglo-Saxon Herbals”, in The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co. […], →OCLC, page 3:

(originally Scandinavian mythology, now also European folklore and fantasy) a giant supernatural being, especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges.

طْرُول

giant supernatural being; grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges


Father Christmas

en-proper noun

Father Christmas (plural Father Christmases or Father Christmasses or Fathers Christmas)

Father Christmases (plural)
Father Christmasses (plural)
Fathers Christmas (plural)

The old men who had moustaches came with their breath frozen on them, and looked like so many old Father Christmasses: although all seemed poor and were indifferently clad, they almost all looked in good health and spirits.

1879 May, “Famine Relief. Welcome Words from Shan-si in a letter from Mr. James.”, in J[ames] Hudson Taylor, editor, China’s Millions, number 47, London: Morgan and Scott, […], page 63, column 2:

Again Donna Maria’s anger was interrupted by the rising of the curtain; or, rather, diverted from Carlo’s décadent æsthetics to the extreme badness of the mise en scène, to rows of Father Christmasses and ladies in grey waterproofs, who bellowed and gesticulated as unhappy shades at the gates of hell, and the chains of thick thighed and tight waisted furies who capered about in the rose-coloured Bengal light.

1889 June, Vernon Lee [pseudonym; Violet Paget], “Orpheus in Rome: Irrelevant Talks on the Use of the Beautiful”, in The Contemporary Review, volume LV, London: Isbister and Company […], section I, page 833:

The five Father Christmases walked slowly on, oblivious alike of the children who gaped at them and the man-hunt that was taking place under their noses.

1939, Nicholas Blake [pseudonym; Cecil Day-Lewis], The Smiler with the Knife, Harper & Row, page 199:

‘Yeah, I’ve seen those things they think are gnomes,’ said Ron, bent double with his head in a peony bush. ‘Like fat little Father Christmases with fishing rods …’

1998 July 2, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “The Burrow”, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter; 2), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

At the beginning of the 1990s, therefore, Bardo moved to the current establishment, and was finally able to house his Father Christmases in the style they deserve.

2003, Piers Letcher, Eccentric France: The Bradt Guide to Mad, Magical and Marvellous France, Bradt Travel Guides; The Globe Pequot Press, →ISBN, page 207:

At Christmas, also in 2004, members processed as Fathers Christmas, employing the slogan ‘Put the fathers back into Christmas’.

2007, Duncan Watts, Pressure Groups (Politics Study Guides), Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 122:

After the confrontation with the fictitious peer’s solution process, namely actually drawing rectangles around the Fathers Christmas’ irregular shapes, in Phase 4, another nine of the remaining 22 students (five 12–13- and four 15–16-year olds^([sic])) exchanged their initial linear answer for the correct nonlinear one.

2007, Dirk De Bock, Wim Van Dooren, Dirk Janssens, Lieven Verschaffel, The Illusion of Linearity: From Analysis to Improvement, Springer, →ISBN, page 103:

I was paid £1.92 an hour to wear a pink tutu and entertain the children waiting to see the two Father Christmases (one on either side of the grotto) as the increasingly irate families inched their way past the hour wait markers.

2011, Clare Hemmings, “Crossings”, in Kathy Davis, Mary Evans, editors, Transatlantic Conversations: Feminism as Travelling Theory, Routledge, published 2016, →ISBN, part I (Becoming a Feminist in a Transatlantic Context), page 29:

The smiling carol singers and the laughing Father Christmasses on the television seemed to make my misery more acute.

2016, Bryony Gordon, “I think I might be dying”, in Mad Girl, London: Headline Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 20:

In 1836, English artist Robert Seymour illustrated Thomas K. Hervey’s Book of Christmas with a couple of boozy, wild-haired Fathers Christmas that set the tone for the next fifty years in which the London newspapers were more likely to emphasize the good father’s drinking than anything else.

2020, Tom A. Jerman, Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, pages 166–167:

In 1958, it was reported that for "the fourth year in succession, staff of four South London stations have combined to decorate the booking hall at Peckham Rye station". They installed a nativity scene, models of Father Christmas, and a sleigh driven by huskies, and Christmas trees were placed around the station.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 29:

(folklore) A mythical figure said to bring presents to people (especially children) at Christmas time.


will o' the wisp

en-noun

will o' the wisp (plural will o' the wisps)

/ˌwɪləðəˈwɪsp/

Will (“male given name”) + of + the + wisp (“bundle of straw or hay used as a torch”)

1988, Michael Weikath, "Keeper of the Seven Keys", Helloween, Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II.
Will o' the wisps / Misguiding your path / You can't throw a curse / Without takin' their wrath

Any of several kinds of pale, flickering light, appearing over marshland in many parts of the world with diverse folkloric explanations and multiple possible scientific explanations including bioluminescence and chemiluminescence.

(British folklore) A flickering light or lantern, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes, held by a supernatural creature who uses it to lure travelers at night to their demise.


bugbear

From obsolete meaning of bug (“something terrifying”) + bear. See Middle English bugge, modern bogey.

Ha, ha: alas poore wretch: a poore Chipochia, haſt not ſlept to night? would he not (a naughty man) let it ſleepe: a bug-beare take him.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

“How could you lie so glaringly as to affirm I hated the ‘poor child’? and invent bugbear stories to terrify her from my door-stones?[…]”

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

"My young friends," quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder that you think the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from infancy in the fear of this monster, and therefore still regard him with the awe that children feel for the bugbears and hobgoblins which their nurses have talked to them about.[…]"

1853, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Golden Fleece”, in Tanglewood Tales:

The partisans of the Administration object to the word “imperialism,” calling it a mere bugbear having no real existence.

1900, Carl Schurz, For Truth, Justice and Liberty:

(folklore, fantasy) A generic creature, often described as a large goblin, meant to inspire fear in children.


kasha

(folklore) A yokai that steals the corpses of those who have died as a result of accumulating evil deeds.


leprechaun

→ German: Leprechaun

desc

→ Italian: leprecauno, leprechaun (unadapted), leprecano, lepricauno

→ Japanese: レプラコーン (repurakōn)

→ Korean: 레프러콘 (repeureokon)

→ Portuguese: leprechaun

→ Russian: лепреко́н (leprekón)

→ Spanish: leprechaun

/ˈlɛpɹəkɔːn/

/ˈlɛpɹəˌkɔn/

/ˈlɛpɹəˌkɑn/

From Irish leipreachán, luprachán, from Middle Irish luchrupán, from Old Irish luchorpán. See also Irish lucharachán.
The word's further etymology is disputed; it is traditionally explained as a compound containing lú (“small”, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ-) + corp (“body”, which is from Latin corpus). However, an alternative suggestion is that it is a derivative of Latin Lupercī (“priests of Lupercus”), who were misinterpreted as an antediluvian species by medieval Irish scholars.

af

from Proto-Indo-European <i class="Latn mention" lang="ine-pro">*h₁lengʷʰ-</i>

which is from Latin <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">corpus</i>

Do you not catch the tiny clamour, / Busy click of an elfin hammer, / Voice of the leprechaun singing shrill, / As he merrily plies his trade?

1888, William Allingham, “The Lepracaun; or Fairy Shoemaker”, in William Butler Yeats, editor, Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, pages 86–87:

(Irish folklore) One of a race of elves that can reveal hidden treasure to those who catch them.

（爱尔兰民间传说里的）短妖精

[Àiěrlán mínjiān chuánshuō lǐ de] duǎn yāojing


shojo

(folklore) A creature in Japanese folklore, often depicted as a sea spirit with red hair and a fondness for alcohol.


sorcerer

/ˈsɔːsəɹə(ɹ)/

From Middle English sorcerere, from Old French sorcier, from Early Medieval Latin sortiārius, derived from Latin sortem (“fate, fortune”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind”).

Pope Joan, who once occupied the throne of the Vatican, was reputed to be the blackest sorcerer of them all.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 105:

"Well, sorcerer?" growled the Norman. "Nay, not well," replied Catweazle shivering miserably, "I have the bone-ache."

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 7:

(mythology, folklore, fantasy) A magician or wizard. Sometimes specifically male.

yshtës

magician/wizard drawing upon natural powers


Bloody Mary

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

(folklore) A ghost, witch or demonic spirit said to appear in a mirror if her name is chanted repeatedly.


shuck

(European folklore) A supernatural and generally malevolent black dog in English folklore.


cockatrice

First attested 1382 as Middle English cocatrice (“basilisk”), from Old French cocatriz, from Late Latin calcātrīx (“she who treads upon something”), from Latin calcō (“tread”), from calx (“heel, hoof”).

der

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 8:17:

(fantasy, folklore) A snake or serpent that appears to be hatched from a rooster, or cock's, egg.


seven-league boots

en-noun

seven-league boots pl (normally plural, singular seven-league boot)

The Count strode away as if he had secured seven-league boots, and in less time than it seemed possible, though it was an age to Lady Anne (...), he returned with two bank of England notes in his hand, which he put into the bailiff's, saying,—"There's your money for yourself and all. You have proper behavour, and will make no say of this littel matter."

1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XL, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 211:

(folklore, fairy tale) A pair of boots enabling the wearer to cross seven leagues at one stride.


changeling

/ˈt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒlɪŋ/

The noun is derived from change + -ling (suffix with the sense ‘immature; small’). Sense 6 (“idiot, simpleton”) is from the idea that foolish children had been left by magical creatures (sense 1).
The adjective is derived from the noun.

suffix

[S]he, as her attendant, hath / A louely boy ſtollen, from an Indian king: / She neuer had ſo ſweete a changeling.

[c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

Every Lover admires his miſtris, though ſhee be very deformed of her ſelfe, [...] her feet ſtinke, ſhee breed lice, a meere changeling, a very monſter, [...]: if he loue her once, he admires her for all this, he takes no notice of any ſuch errors, or imperfections of body or minde.

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes or Signes of Love Melancholy, in Body, Minde, Good, Bad, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 3, subsection 1, page 515:

Juſt as a Changeling ſeems below the reſt / Of Men, or rather is a two-legg’d Beaſt, / So theſe Gigantick Souls amaz'd we find / As much above the reſt of human kind.

1709, Earl of Murlgrave [i.e., John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, formerly Earl of Mulgrave], An Essay on Poetry, London: […] H. Hills, […], →OCLC, page 15:

It was easy enough to see that the child was a changeling, for it wasn't like other children at all it screamed and cried, as if a knife stuck in it, and it wheezed and hit about with its arms like a huldre-cat, and was as ugly as sin.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 298:

His nurse had told him all about changelings, and how the little people would always try to steal a beautiful human child out of its cradle and put in its stead one of their own ailing, puking brats [...]

1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, 8th edition, London: Methuen & Co., →OCLC, page 285:

(European folklore, also figurative) In pre-modern European folklore: an infant of a magical creature that was secretly exchanged for a human infant. In British, Irish and Scandinavian mythology the exchanged infants were thought to be those of fairies, sprites or trolls; in other places, they were ascribed to demons, devils, or witches.

خائن

infant of a magical creature secretly exchanged for a human infant


Bruno

en-proper noun

Bruno (countable and uncountable, plural Brunos or Brunoes)

From Italian, German etc continental European Bruno, name of medieval Italian and German saints and royalty, Latinized form of Old High German brūn (“brown”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn. The surname is mostly borrowed from Italian Bruno. Doublet of Brown.


kobold

en-noun

kobold (plural kobolds or (rare) kobolde)

Borrowed from German Kobold. Doublet of cobalt.

a. 1867, George MacDonald, The Shadows, 2000 [1980], The Golden Key and Other Stories, page 96,
The king had seen all kinds of gnomes, goblins, and kobolds at his coronation; […] .

Among the nonhuman creatures that peopled rural Europe in the Middle Ages — the fairies, elves, dwarfs, trolls, and kobolds — there were beneficent female spirits who patronized those households that treated them well.

1977, James Buchanan Given, Society and Homicide in Thirteenth-Century England, published 2007, page 138:

In Germany also the kobolds are rather troublesome than otherwise, to the miners, taking pleasure in frustrating their objects, and rendering their toil unfruitful.

2011, William Wirt Sikes, Varla Ventura, The Occult Powers of Goats and Other Welsh Tales of Goblins, Fairies, Gnomes, and Elves, unnumbered page:

(German folklore) A mischievous elf or goblin, or one connected (and helpful) to a family or household.


silver bullet

(literally, folklore) A bullet made of silver, usually with reference to the folkloric belief that such bullets are the only weapons which can kill a werewolf, vampire, or other monster.


Mrs. Claus

A relatively new gala, the Celebrate Santa Convention boasts a sea of Santas, Mrs. Clauses, elves, and reindeers, […]

2011, Kristin Luna, Tennessee Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff, Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, →ISBN, page 167:

In normal years, he runs a roving school for Santas and Mmes. Claus and supplies a workforce of bearded men to malls and corporate events around the country. […] He led a neighborhood tree-lighting in a blue surgical mask with a Mrs. Claus friend near his apartment in Upper Manhattan, and a few buddies volunteered for a socially distanced Christmas parade.

2020 December 25, Emma Green, “The Christmas Crisis”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 2020-12-25:

“Why do I get the feeling that ‘we’ includes me?” I said warily. “Of course it includes you. You’re Mrs. Claus.” She reconsidered. “One of the Mrs. Clauses, at any rate. I signed you up for two shifts and some cookies. Surely that’s not too much to ask?”

2021, Liz Ireland, Mrs. Claus and the Halloween Homicide, Kensington Books, →ISBN:

In 1937, a Michigan school was established in Midland, and it has been training Santas and Mrs. Clauses for eighty-five years.

2022, Bill Loomis, Christmas in Detroit, Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, →ISBN, page 67:


feyness

feyness (countable and uncountable, plural feynesses)

(Shetland, folklore, countable) A ghost resembling a living person, seeing which is an omen of that person's death.


erlking

Partial calque of German Erlkönig (literally “alder-king”), a mistranslation of Danish ellerkonge (“king of the elves”).

pcal

This line, and indeed the whole passage (lines 653-664), allude to the well-known poem by Goethe about the erlking, hoary enchanter of the elf-haunted alderwood, who falls in love with the delicate little boy of a belated traveler.

1962, Charles Kinbote [pseudonym; Vladimir Nabokov], Pale Fire, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1985, →ISBN:

So easy for one young son to be swallowed up in a world teeming with Erlkings, real and imagined.

2010, Rachel Billington, The Missing Boy, Hachette, →ISBN:

He was in the forest looking to see the trees / But none were there / He found a girl / She found the erlking

2012, ミラクルミュージカル (lyrics and music), “Murders”, in Hawaii: Part II:

By now, he seems less a cartoon character than some contemporary Erlking, the malicious spirit made famous by Goethe (and Schubert) but found originally in a Danish ballad.

2018 October 22, Carol Rumens, “Poem of the week: Three Poetesses by Kristín Ómarsdóttir”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(European folklore) In German literature and modern folklore, a malicious elf or spirit who preys on children.


mara

Borrowed from Old Norse mara, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ, cognate with Old English mare or mære. Doublet of mare. See nightmare.

The corpus of related texts tells us that within rural society it was not improbable for your neighbour's envy of your fine cattle to take the form of a mara.

1996, Catharina Raudvere, “Now you see her, now you don't: some notes on the conception of female shape-shifters in Scandinavian traditions”, in Sandra Billington, Miranda Green, editors, The Concept of the Goddess, pages 41–55:

(European folklore) A nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions.

խիպիլիկ

(folklore) a nightmare; spectre or wraith-like creature


cauchemar

(folklore) A demon or witch in French folklore that drains a sleeping person's energy by night.


redcap

From red + cap.
In sense of "porter", 1890s US; compare contemporary Japanese 赤帽 (akabou), Chinese 小紅帽／小红帽 (Xiǎo Hóng Mào). On Labor Day, 1890, John Williams, an African-American railway porter, tied a red ribbon to his black uniform cap to stand out from the crowd at Grand Central Terminal. The strategy was so successful that it was soon adopted by others in the profession, leading to the synecdochic use of redcap as a term for all railway porters.

1876: Porter & Coates (pub.), Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
Lord Soulis he sat in Hermitage Castle,
And beside him Old Redcap sly; —
"Now, tell me, thou sprite, who are meikle of might,
The death that I must die?"

"What's a Brownie?" you say. Oh, it's a kind of a sort of a Bogle, but it isn't so cruel as a Redcap! What! you don't know what's a Bogle or a Redcap!

1890, Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales:

[…] the goblin had aroused the mercenary's ire. This seemed to bring out a formidable and hitherto unrecognized talent in the taciturn young man.
"Why cam' ye by my door?" The redcap brandished his pikestaff menacingly.
Redcap - A malevolent goblin easily distinguishable by their namesake red cap, fiery red eyes, claws and iron boots. They often appear as little old men, but can run very fast despite the boots. They reside in castles and watchtowers along the English-Scottish border, but will move their residence to avoid detection. They have sharp eagle’s talons which they use for weapons, but can easily be repelled simply by reading holy verse. http://www.vf11.com/legendsofvalhal/legendsofvalhal-post-814.html

2002, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Ill-Made Mute: The Bitterbynde:

After boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblinlike creatures that lurked where there had been bloodshed […]

1999 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter; 3), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(British, folklore) A type of evil goblin or imp.


little green man

en-noun

little green man (plural little green men)

[ˌlɪ.ɾɫ̩ ˈɡɹɪ̃i̯m ˌmɛ̃ə̯n̆]

[ˌlɪ.t͡ʔɫ̩ ˈɡɹɪ̃i̯m ˌmãn̆]

[ˌlɘ.ɾɯ ˈɡɹɘ̯ĩm ˌmɛ̞̃n̆]

կանաչ մարդուկ

humorous: space alien, Martian — see also alien

It was the pantomime of "Jack and the Bean Stalk," and as the Hallicots entered a large number of little green men were hammering on anvils in a gloomy and spacious cave.

1866 May 5, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, page 4, column 1:

How funny to see the little green men, and the fairies in gossamer and dewdrops.

1883 March 17, The Brisbane Courier, page 3, column 3:

In an uncautions moment, once upon a time, I had informed Sweetheart that on the branches of that tree in years long past, when I used to trudge past it on foot, there used to be seen little green men, moping and mowing. So every time we pass that way Sweetheart requires the story with out variations. Not a single fairy must be added or subtracted.

1896 January 25, The Australasian, page 41, column 3:

Still the Green Isle is supposed to specialise in fairies - the little green men and fairy sprites have in spired many poems and stories of that distressful country[.]

1921 January 23, The Truth, page 8, column 4:

"Sure...the Little Green Men can't be as spiteful as some people say!"

1932 March 5, The Daily Mercury, page 14, column 2:

(folklore) A type of diminutive sprite or fairy that wears green clothing.


sandman

E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Sandman (short story)
sandman

From sand + -man. The mythological sense may be from German Sandmann, Sandmännchen, as it is apparently first attested in English in the context of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella The Sandman (1816). The German is attested in the relevant sense since at least the mid-18th century.

This then was the Sandman; but what was his occupation, and what was his purpose ? The nursery-maid being applied to, gave a nursery-maid's explanation, that the Sandman was a bad man, who flung sand in the eyes of little children who did not go to bed.

1827, “On the Supernatural in Composition; and particularly on the Works of Ernest Theodore William Hoffman”, in Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, volume 11, page 458:

(folklore) A figure that brings sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand into people's eyes.


nahualism

From nahual + -ism. The first element is from Nahuatl nahualli (“sorcerer, spirit, animal form a person may take”).

uder

(folklore, mythology) The Mesoamerican belief that certain human beings can transform into animals.


memorate

From Latin memorātus, past participle of memorāre (“to bring to remembrance, mention, recount”), from memor (“remembering”); see memory.

An undemonstrable legend is no legend at all. One must postulate that every fabulate is based on a memorate.

1974, Linda Dégh, Andrew Vázsonyi, “The memorate and the proto-memorate”, in The Journal of American Folklore, volume 87, →DOI, page 232:

(folklore) an oral narrative from memory relating a personal experience, especially the precursor of a legend.


soucouyant

1986, Kenneth Ramchand, “Wayne Vincent Brown”, in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 90,
We 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); …

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,
The 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.

“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.”

2003, Ken Douglas, Jack Stewart, Diamond Sky, Bootleg Press, →ISBN, page 110:

(Caribbean, folklore) A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly.


ignis fatuus

From New Latin ignis fatuus (literally “foolish fire”).

bor

Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars, fire-drakes, or ignes fatui; which lead men often in flumina aut præcipitia, saith Bodine[…]

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

An Ignis Fatuus, that bewitches, / And leads Men into Pools and Ditches

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 16:


tommyknocker

Then he's down one of these adits, talking to the tommyknockers, more'n likely.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 335:

(folklore) A mythical creature, like a brownie or leprechaun, believed to live in underground tunnels; later associated with dead miners.


bear walker

Calque of Ojibwe me'coubmoosa (“bear walker”).

clq

The hair ornament was worn by the Bear-Walker before and during the casting of spells.

1901, Charles Edward Brown, The Wisconsin Archeologist, page 116:

He told Jim he saw a Bear-walker approaching the house then and there.

1953, Inland Seas, Great Lakes Historical Society, page 13

These bear-walkers owed their powers to their personal manito, the bear, and traveled in disguise at night, causing disease among their victims.

1983, Christopher Vecsey, Traditional Ojibwa Religion and its Historical Changes, →ISBN, page 148:

(Native American, folklore) An evil sorcerer, specifically one who walks by night in the form of a bear.

bearwalk used in the comedy Escanaba in da Moonlight


white lady

en-noun

white lady (countable and uncountable, plural white ladies)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:white lady.

(folklore) A female ghost dressed in white, who is associated with local legends of tragedy.


kabouter

(Dutch folklore) A tiny folkloric man who traditionally wears a pointy red hat, lives in harmony with nature and resides in mushrooms, similar to a gnome, leprechaun or a smurf.


fachan

A fachan is a large, fierce monstrosity that is as dangerous as it is strange. A fachan has one eye in the middle of its forehead, a single arm in the middle of its chest and one leg supporting it from underneath. The fachan's[…]

(Can we date this quote?), RuneQuest Monsters, Mongoose Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:

"I can handle a fachan on my own,” Sir Celes said. “Don't worry, my regiment is...” “My father...” It felt so cold all of a sudden. Like a cloud had covered the sun. A fachan. A horrible, one-eyed giant. A terrifying monster that had taken something[…]

2020 April 27, Nao Wakasa, The Extraordinary, the Ordinary, and SOAP! Volume 1, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

(folklore and now also fantasy) A giant in Irish and Scottish folklore, which has one central leg, one hand protruding from its chest, and one eye.


Flying Dutchman

(nautical folklore) A mythical Dutch-flagged ghost clipper that is very fast sailing, and never makes it to port, seen on the high seas, where upon being hailed, occupants request information on persons long dead, or leave messages for said people. In European naval folklore, it was considered to portend bad luck.


jackalope

Most jackalopes are furry and a foot or two tall; many are only heads, mounted on wood plaques; there are some six-footers, covered with fur…

1993, Jane Stern, Michael Stern, Way out west:

(folklore, mythology) A folkloric animal, a supposed cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope, goat, or deer, usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers.


vrykolakas

Borrowed from Greek βρυκόλακας (vrykólakas).

(folklore) In Greek folklore, a harmful undead creature that eats flesh, somewhat like a vampire or zombie.


Saci

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese saci, from Old Tupi sa'si.

(folklore) A black, one-legged, prankster youngster in Brazilian folklore, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red hat that enables him to disappear.


yokai

From Japanese 妖怪 (yōkai, “ghost, phantom”).

(folklore, Japanese mythology) Any of various supernatural monsters, sometimes shapeshifters, in Japanese folklore.


wyakin

(folklore) In Native American folklore, a personal guardian spirit in the form of an animal or bird.


antivampire

en-adj

antivampire (comparative more antivampire, superlative most antivampire)

more antivampire (comparative)
most antivampire (superlative)

This is a revealing passage, for van Helsing is the stern realist, the guiding hand directing the antivampire confederacy.

1996, Howard L. Malchow, Gothic images of race in nineteenth-century Britain, page 146:

The Oscar, Time, and Murrow formed a magical antivampire crucifix that would do more than protect Mr. S from the bloodsuckers of Hollywood; this figurative talisman would also convert the naysayers into idolators.

2003, George Jacobs, William Stadiem, Mr. S: my life with Frank Sinatra, page 137:

(folklore, fantasy) Opposing or countering vampires.


cynanthropy

Coined based on Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn, “dog”) and ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos, “man; human”).

(anthropology, folklore) A shape-shifting ability between human and canine forms.


tambaran

(folklore) A demon or spirit, among certain peoples of Papua New Guinea.


sea monk

[…] three sea monks being found in 1530, 1546 and 1549. In fact the first sea monk was not a sea monk at all, having been found in the Rhine. The second one was found near Copenhagen with a black head and the clothes of a monk and the final one was found near Hafnia (Copenhagen), tonsured like a monk. […] Nonetheless walruses remain a possible explanation for the occurence of sea monks prior to 1546.

2005, Steenstrupia, volume 29, pages 40-45:

Sea monks had failed to assert themselves into the popular imagination the way mermaids had. They lacked a certain appeal. The few pictorial depictions stuck a tonsured human head on a fish body, scaly fins and tail forming the monk's ...

2019, Holly MacArthur, Tin House 80: 20th Anniversary Edition:

(folklore) A sea creature in European folklore (in the 16th century), a sort of fish that resembled (and was sometimes robed or tonsured like) a European monk.


Kaguya

Borrowed from Japanese 赫映, かぐや (Kaguya).

(Japanese folklore) The protagonist of 赫映姫の物語 (Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, “The Tale of Princess Kaguya”), a mysterious girl from the moon, discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant.

かぐや姫

Japanese folklore: mysterious girl from the moon


hengeyokai

1985, David Cook, Oriental Adventures, TSR Inc., →ISBN
Hengeyokai are intelligent, shape-changing animals. Several subraces exist, each a different type of animal. They are found throughout the Oriental world, usually on the fringes of human-settled lands.

1998-01-28, Lee Gold, Re: B5 Filk: You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Us Sinclair, rec.music.filk
If a hengeyokai fails to concentrate (or perhaps gets distracted -- due to being beaten, seeing a mouse, fatigue), the human form's ears may get pointed or a tail may appear.

Hengeyokai transfer between forms almost instantly, though when in human form, they often retain some mark of characteristic of their true animal nature.

2001, Laurence C. Bush, Asian Horror Encyclopedia: Asian Horror Culture in Literature, Manga and Folklore, Writers Club Press, page 69:

2013-10-12, Jasin Zujovic, Hengeyokai level adjustment, rec.games.frp.dnd
I've been watching Inuyasha yesterday (too bad that's a German dub and I can understand almost nothing) and that got me wanting to make myself a hengeyokai character... and then I remembered the level adjustment.

(folklore) A legendary Japanese animal with the ability to shapeshift into human form.


elf arrow

From the folk belief that they were used by elves.

When they want beef or mutton on any festal occasion, they betake themselves to the Shetlanders' scatkolds or townmails, and with elf-arrows bring down their game.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 262:

(folklore, fantasy) A magical arrow (weapon) used by elves or other mythological beings.


skinwalking

(folklore, mythology) In certain Native American mythologies, the ability to transform into any animal when wearing its pelt.


ushioni

Borrowed from Japanese 牛鬼 (うしおに, ushioni).

(Japanese folklore) An ox ogre or demon; an evil ox spirit.


night hag

(folklore) a demon that gives rise to sleep paralysis


cambion

From Late Latin cambio (“I exchange”). Doublet of change.

(folklore) The half-demon offspring of either an incubus and a female human or a succubus and a male human.


tomhan

(Scotland, folklore) A magical fairy mound.


santilmo

(folklore) A floating flame or fire ball, similar to a will o' the wisp, that stalk or chase people at night, believed to be the ignited blood of a person who met a tragic death.


menk

Borrowed from Mansi (compare Northern Mansi менкв (menkv)).

This figure is called menk in Ob-Ugrian folklore and ritual.

1996, Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia, page 79:

Although doors were jammed shut, the menk burst in with huge birch masks covered with hair made of hay.

1999, Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, The Tenacity of Ethnicity: A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective:

A new documentary, “Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives” airing June 1 on the Discovery Channel explores the remote possibility that a “menk” — the Russian^([sic – meaning Mansi]) word for Yeti — may have been responsible.

2014, “Mysterious Deaths Of College Students Blamed On ‘Russian Yeti’”, in Huffington Post:

(Russia, cryptozoology, folklore) An animal described by the Mansi as a "forest giant", with anatomical features similar to a yeti, said to live in the area of Khantia-Mansia, Russia.


black lady

(Philippines, folklore) A ghost of a lady in black mourning clothes.


nasnas

(Islam, folklore) A monstrous creature related to the jinn, said to resemble the left or right half of a human being (with half a head, half a body, one arm and one leg).


diwata

Borrowed from Cebuano diwata, from Proto-Visayan *diwata, from Malay dewata, from Sanskrit देवता (devatā, “god, deity”).

(mythology, folklore) In Filipino folklore, a spirit, usually a lesser god or goddess, believed to guard natural features such as forests.


rougarou

From Cajun French rougarou (“werewolf”).

Like the European werewolf and loup-garou, the French Canadian rougarou also often appears in the form of a dog. Whoever neglects his Easter duties or goes unconfessed for seven years finds himself changed into a rougarou at night.

1961, Maria Leach, God Had a Dog: Folklore of the Dog:

“I told you, I'm not the rougarou. And if I say anything, the rougarou will kill me. I may be old, but I don't want to go that way.” “Selena, I'm going to hurt you worse than any rougarou.”

2016, Heather Graham, Blood on the Bayou: A Cafferty & Quinn Novella, Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated, →ISBN:

“The rougarou—him's a big, bad wolf.” “Bad?” asked Lizabeth. “What do you mean?”

2016, Jonathan Maberry, The Orphan Army, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 78:

(folklore) A werewolf or werewolf-like creature said to inhabit swamps in Louisiana (and sometimes French Canadian) folklore.


Lukomorye

From Russian Лукомо́рье (Lukomórʹje, literally “the curve of the sea”).

bor

(folklore, Slavic mythology) A fictional land in Russian folklore.

Loukomorie

a fictional land in the Russian folklore


fairy money

(folklore) Money given by the fairies, which later transforms into withered leaves or similar.


grundylow

(UK, folklore, mythology) Alternative form of grindylow


grindylow

Possibly connected to Grendel, the monster from the epic Beowulf.

(UK, folklore, mythology) A folkloric creature, said to inhabit water and to grab children with its long sinewy arms and drown them.


baccoo

(folklore) A mischievous little male spirit in Caribbean folklore.


churile

(Ghana, folklore) The ghost of a woman who dies in childbirth, said to prowl in the darkness giving mournful cries.


pishtaco

From a Quechua language term meaning "cut the throat of, cut up".

They are often told that the pishtaco is going to carry them off if they do not behave. Thus, they are taught to fear the mestizo and white man at an early age. The pishtaco also maintains conformity among adults. Individualism is not a norm ...

However, the pishtaco is not an Andean Minotaur. It is, rather, an indigenous Andean folk symbol of Spanish, and later criollo, colonialist oppression. Pishtacos are represented as white foreigners, ...

1997, Milos Kokotovic, Confronting Postmodernism:

For this part of the operation, the pishtaco is said to import specialized equipment from the United States, Germany, or Japan.

2005, Don Kulick, Anne Meneley, Fat, →ISBN:

This explains why the first pishtaco figures in the legend were priests and soldiers. As the power structure changed, so did the pishtaco figure. In later versions of the story he rode a horse and wore leather chaps like a rancher, ...

2008, Jennifer McLagan, Fat, →ISBN, page 217:

(mythology, folklore) A mythical white male demon in South American folklore, who steals and eats the bodyfat of indigenous South Americans, or cuts up their flesh to convert it into food.


Fiddler's Green

From 19th-century English maritime folklore.

Sam Tyler: Where to now?
Gene Hunt: Fiddler's Green.
Sam Tyler: I hope that's the name of a pub.

2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3:

(nautical, folklore) A legendary afterlife for retired sailors, where there is perpetual mirth, fiddle music, and dancing.


fenodyree

(folklore) A little hairy sprite in the folklore of the Isle of Man.


rye wolf

(European folklore) An evil creature of German folklore lurking in the rye-fields.


Gubbins

(folklore) A half-savage race said to live in Devonshire, described by the pastoral poet William Browne, among others.


Hartlepool monkey

(folklore) A monkey, the only survivor of a French ship that foundered near Hartlepool during the Napoleonic Wars, that was supposedly tried and hanged as a spy.


Maid Marian

(European folklore) The love interest of the legendary outlaw Robin Hood; originally a shepherdess figure associated with May Day.


Gambrinus

The source of the legend of Gambrinus is uncertain and perhaps based on a mythical Germanic king Gambrivius. The etymology is unknown, but many explanations exist:
* a corruption of Jean Primus, John I, Duke of Brabant (1252–1294)
* Middle High German gambra (“germination of grain”)
* cambier, name given to brewers in the north of France in the Middle Ages

m+

(folklore) A legendary European culture hero celebrated as an icon of beer, brewing, joviality, and joie de vivre.


werebeing

(folklore) Any shapeshifting creature, such as a werewolf or werebear.


oozlum bird

(humorous, folklore) A fictional bird said to fly backwards or in circles.


spring-heeled Jack

en-noun

spring-heeled Jack (plural spring-heeled Jacks)

And he rattled, thumped, brandished his thunderbox, yelled, shouted, raved, roared, stamped, and danced corrobory like any black fellow; and then he touched a spring in the thunderbox, and out popped turnip-ghosts and magic-lanthorns and pasteboard bogies and spring-heeled Jacks and sallaballas […]

1863, Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby:

Servant-girls who have just received their year's wages at Christmas will frequently profess themselves afraid to go home after dusk, because “there are so many o' these Spring-heeled Jacks about.”

1887, English Dialect Society, Publications, volume 21, number 53, page 367:

London and Edinburgh had their spring-heeled jacks long before they appeared in Lasswade in Johnny's time. As long ago as 1837 a real, flesh-and-blood ghost in the shape of a spring-heeled jack was caught by a London policeman […]

1953, John B. Cairns, Bright and early: a bookseller's memories of Edinburgh and Lasswade:

(historical, folklore) A terrifying man of bizarre appearance and able to make extraordinary leaps, the subject of English folklore of the Victorian era.


Unseelie

Borrowed from Scots unseely (“mischievous, evil-doing”), from Middle English unsely, from Old English unsǣliġ. Doublet of unsilly.

bor+

(fantasy, folklore) A malevolent or malicious fairy.


Unseelie

en-adj

Unseelie (comparative more Unseelie, superlative most Unseelie)

more Unseelie (comparative)
most Unseelie (superlative)

Unseelie wights

“That is not very Unseelie, and most definitely not very sluagh.”
“I cannot always choose how the magic will come.”
“It is wild magic, and it chooses its own way like water finding a cleft in a rock,” he said.

2008, Laurell K. Hamilton, Swallowing Darkness: A Novel, Ballantine Books, →ISBN:

“I am very Unseelie Tuatha Dé. Almost one hundred percent, in fact. Only a drop of Seelie to muddy the pool. Do you have a problem with that, Shining One?”

2010, Nalini Singh, Erin McCarthy, Jean Johnson, Lora Leigh, Linda Winstead Jones, Angela Knight, Anya Bast, Allyson James, Paranormal Holiday Anthology Trio, Penguin, →ISBN:

(fantasy, folklore) Of or pertaining to the unseelie; malevolent (as a fairy, etc).


Seelie

From Scots sely, seelie (“holy, good”), from Middle English seely, from Old English sǣliġ, gesǣlig. Doublet of silly.

Okay, so that sounded like the Seelie hated the Unseelie and vice versa. But not quite. There was something more here. I puzzled over it several moments. Did it mean the Seelie couldn't actually touch the Unseelie, and vice versa? I read on.

2008, Karen Marie Moning, Faefever: Fever Series, Delacorte Press, →ISBN:

We like the Seelie court and the humans lived, loved and laughed. As the war between the Seelie and the Unseelie escalated and the Seelie gained the upper hand we Unseelie were forced to hide in the shadows and fear for our lives.

2015, Selena Thana, Sidhe Megalomania: Tuath Dé - Tome 4, K. George, →ISBN:

(fantasy, folklore) A benevolent or beneficially-inclined fairy.


Seelie

Seelie (comparative more Seelie, superlative most Seelie)

more Seelie (comparative)
most Seelie (superlative)

“Like Sleeping Beauty, you mean,” I said. Henry nodded. His handsome face was very worried, and I didn't know him long enough to read him that well. “They came and saw the garden, and it was very Seelie, my lord. More than that, none.”

“Altruism is very Seelie.” “The sidhe were all Seelie once,” Shock said. “Either we resign ourselves to that part of our history or we go mad. I do not fight my impulses toward love and beauty the way my father does. But enough of that.”

2018, Mishell Baker, Impostor Syndrome, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(fantasy, folklore) Of or pertaining to the Seelie; benevolent (as a fairy, etc).


uruisg

(European folklore, mythology) A brownie in Scottish folklore.


Vazimba

(folklore) The first inhabitants of Madagascar, generally described as small in stature.


troll cat

(folklore) In Scandinavian folklore, a witch's familiar made from hair, wood shavings, etc. that would suck milk from cows and steal cream from people's homes.


gillygaloo

(US folklore) A fictional bird said to nest on hillsides and to lay square eggs that will not roll downhill.


Nanabozho

(folklore) An Ojibwe trickster figure and culture hero.


jincan

(folklore) A poisonous gold-coloured silkworm or caterpillar in Chinese legend.


sowlth

All Mr. Yeats's grotesque machinery of sowlths and tevishes and sheogues leaves us without a shudder; his fantasies are stage-properties of the most unillusive kind.

(folklore) A kind of spirit in Irish folklore.


Five Poisons

(folklore) Five animals regarded as poisonous or otherwise hazardous in Chinese folklore: typically snakes, scorpions, centipedes, toads, and spiders.


comprachico

Coined from Spanish roots by the French writer Victor Hugo in his 1869 novel L'Homme qui rit (The Man Who Laughs). The word is not generally known in Spanish.

But here in England a comprachico is equal to a murderer, a candidate for the hangman's noose.

1969, Günther Weisenborn, The Man Without a Face, page 10:

He is angry and equips himself accordingly—with a penknife to give the offender a comprachico countenance, a mirror to show him the effect, and a pair of nailed boots to give him his dismissal.

2016, George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such: Top Novelist Focus:

(folklore) A person who deliberately mutilates a growing child in order to induce freakish physical traits.


Buyan

From Russian Буя́н (Buján). See there for further information.

(Slavic mythology, folklore) In medieval Russian folklore, a mysterious island with the ability to appear and disappear with the tide; the home of the Zoryas (solar goddesses) and three brothers representing the Northern, Western, and Eastern Winds.

Bouïane

a mysterious island in the Russian folklore


coltpixie

(UK, Hampshire, archaic, folklore) A kind of hobgoblin.


Nickneven

(folklore) A hag or evil spirit in Scottish folklore.


flying rowan

(folklore) A rowan tree growing parasitically on another tree, or from a wall, roof, etc., once believed in Scandinavia to have magical powers.


Ascapart

(European folklore) A legendary giant in English folklore.


gallitrap

(folklore, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset) Grass growing in a circle that possesses the magical power of compelling anyone standing within it to confess their wrongdoings.

(folklore, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset) A magical circle of grass believed to have been created by pixies, that causes any mortal stepping into it to believe they are continuing to walk forward when they are actually walking in a circle.


tamanoas

(folklore) Magical power, in the Chinook culture.


shriker

(folklore) Synonym of shuck (“supernatural black dog”)


fairy hill

On this Hill [...] are the Remains of a CAMP, and where the Ground has suffered no Rupture are to be seen Tokens of circular Tents, called Fairy Hills, round which the vulgar report these Sylphes were wont to dance.

1754, Thomas Gardner, An Historical Account of Dunwich, Antiently a City, Now a Borough, page 189:

Their Fairy hills were called Tomhans and Shian, and were supposed to possess great internal comforts, with doors and windows that could only be discovered on dark evenings, by the bright light of the fairy fires shining through the artfully-constructed apertures.

1865, Cuthbert Bede, The White Wife: With Other Stories, Supernatural, Romantic and Legendary, page 189:

Finally, as regards the places in which these rites and mysteries may have been held, certain writers believe them to have been the "Fairy Hills" or "howes" in various parts of Scotland.

1928, Lewis Spence, Mysteries of Britain, page v. 136:

(folklore) A hill, barrow (tumulus), or other circular eminence, beneath which fairies live.


wulver

(folklore) A wolf-like humanoid creature in Shetland folklore.


glaistig

(folklore) A kind of ghost in Scottish folklore, usually depicted as a woman, a goat, or a hybrid of the two.


Kitezh

(Slavic mythology, folklore) A city in Russian folklore that was believed to have disappeared under a lake, to avoid being conquered by the Mongols.


Piggi-Billa

(folklore) An echidna that appears in Aboriginal fairy tales.


Scholomance

(folklore) A fabled underground school of black magic in Romania.


dooligah

(folklore) In Australian Aboriginal folklore, a giant hairy man said to abduct children.


water sprite

(folklore) A general term for an elemental spirit associated with water, said to be able to breathe water or air and sometimes is able to fly.


gentry bush

(Ireland, folklore) A thorny bush, especially a hawthorn.


mojo hand

(African-American, spirituality, folklore) A small flannel bag containing one or more magical items.

African-American; spirituality; African-American; spirituality


clurichaun

The residents of a house would leave offerings for the clurichaun, who sing in Gaelic with enchantingly beautiful voices. Related to leprechauns, clurichauns are house faeries who specialize in caring for and protecting wine and beer cellars.

2012, Sirona Knight, Wiccan Spell A Night, Kensington Publishing, unnumbered page:

2016, Keith B. Darrell, Flashbacks: Fangs & Fur, Book 1, Amber Book Company, unnumbered page,
"Clurichauns are Dark Fae cousins of leprechauns," Aurae explained. "Unlike their Seelie Court cousins, the clurichauns drink to excess and are seldom sober. But despite always being drunk, the clurichauns are impeccably groomed and well-dressed... although they can be a bit surly."

(Irish folklore) A mischievous, potentially malicious fairy, akin to the leprechaun, that greatly loves drinking and tends to haunt breweries, pubs and wine cellars.


ghost bullet

People believe that a beast shoots "ghost bullets" when they ford a stream in Sihch'uan at any time except the winter months .

1968, Wolfram Eberhard, The Local Cultures of South and East China, page 195:

The leaves were used in the removal of ghost bullets " (supernatural objects that were shot into people by ghosts).

Pushing Teddy off, ignoring the part of him that mourned the loss—not the time, dumbass, not the time, ghosts were kind of a big fucking deal—he scrambled to his knees and looked at where the ghost had tried to put a ghost bullet in his brain.

"Somebody shot the doctor," the big police sergeant said. "It wasn't a ghost bullet; it was lead.

It was a ward against ghosts, but he was pretty sure it wasn't going to stop a ghost bullet.

2017, Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors, page 105:

He ain't shootin' ghost bullets, neither. Here's his slug.

2020, Kenneth Robeson, The Squeaking Goblin, page 66:

(folklore or fantasy) A supernatural bullet that wounds or kills a person, especially one that is shot by a supernatural assailant.


imbunche

(folklore) In Chilote folklore, a deformed humanoid monster that protects the entrance to a warlock's cave.


toyol

(folklore) An undead infant in Indonesian and Malay folklore, typically invoked as a helper by black magic.