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sylph

 
Dictionary: sylph   (sĭlf) pronunciation
n.
  1. A slim, graceful woman or girl.
  2. In the occult philosophy of Paracelsus, a being that has air as its element.

[New Latin sylpha, perhaps blend of Latin sylvestris, of the forest (from silva, sylva, forest) and Latin nympha, nymph; see nymph.]


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Wordsmith Words: sylph
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(silf)

noun
1. A slender, graceful young woman.
2. Any of a race of mythological invisible beings who inhabit air, originally described in theories of Paracelsus.

Etymology
From New Latin sylpha, apparently a blend of sylva, variant of Latin silva (forest) + nymph

Usage
"But alluring though the fitness industry looks, it is not without risks. The biggest is Britons' fond self-delusion that they are sleek sylphs." — Losing a Beer Belly; The Economist (London, UK); Aug 12, 1995.

"Like an ugly duckling which has blossomed into a slender sylph, the compact convertible from Stuttgart has finally added some style to a fair amount of substance." — Samuel Ee; New kind of SLeeK; The Business Times (Singapore); Mar 20, 2004.


Obscure Words: sylph
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a slender graceful woman or girl
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization. Sylphs were allied to gnomes, nymphs and salamanders, which dwelt, respectively, in earth, water and fire, all now insalubrious. Sylphs, like fowls of the air, were male and female, to no purpose, apparently, for if they had progeny they must have nested in accessible places, none of the chicks having ever been seen.


Wikipedia: Sylph
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Sylph
AKA: Sylphid
Creature
Grouping Mythological
Sub grouping Air spirit, Elemental
Similar creatures Angels
Data
Mythology Western tradition
Habitat Air

Sylph (also called sylphid) is a mythological creature in the Western tradition. The term originates in Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as invisible beings of the air, his elementals of air. There is no substantial mythos associated with them.

Alchemy and literature

As alchemy in the West derived from Paracelsus, alchemists and related movements, such as Rosicrucianism, continued to speak of sylphs in their hermetic literature.

The first mainstream western discussion of sylphs comes with Alexander Pope. In Rape of the Lock, Pope satirizes French Rosicrucian and alchemical writings when he invents a theory to explain the sylph. In a parody of heroic poetry and the "dark" and "mysterious" literature of pseudo-science, and in particular the sometimes esoterically Classical heroic poetry of the 18th century in England and France, Pope pretends to have a new alchemy, in which the sylph is the mystically, chemically condensed humors of peevish women. In Pope's poem, women who are full of spleen and vanity turn into sylphs when they die because their spirits are too full of dark vapors to ascend to the skies. Belinda, the heroine of Pope's poem, is attended by a small army of sylphs, who foster her vanity and guard her beauty. This is a parody of Paracelsus, inasmuch as Pope imitates the pseudo-science of alchemy to explain the seriousness with which vain women approach the dressing room. In a slight parody of the divine battle in John Milton's Paradise Lost, when the Baron of the poem attempts to cut a lock of Belinda's hair, the sylphs interpose their airy bodies between the blades of the scissors (to no effect whatsoever). The chief sylph in "The Rape of the Lock" has the same name as Prospero's servant in Shakespeare's The Tempest: Ariel.

Willow, in Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom of Landover series is a sylph and the wife of protagonist Ben Holiday. She is the daughter of the River Master and a wood elemental, giving her pale green skin and emerald hair. Her dual nature is reflected in the fact that she must transform into a Willow tree once every 21 days to maintain her life force. She has a tense and distant relationship with her father, as her existence serves as a permanent reminder to him of the brief relationship that he desires to reclaim, but never can. And so it is to her mother that she turns for guidance.

Additionally, the Sylph is a character in Terry Goodkind's "The Sword of Truth" series. In these works, the sylph is a female character created from a prostitute during the Wizard's War. She is a "quicksilver" transporter who encases travelers possessing both additive and subtractive magic and takes them to other pools throughout the world.

Fairy link

Because of their association with the ballet La Sylphide, where sylphs are identified with fairies and the medieval legends of fairyland, as well as a confusion with other "airy spirits" (e.g., in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream), a slender girl may be referred to as a "sylph".

"Sylph" has passed into general language as a term for minor spirits, elementals, or faeries of the air. Fantasy authors will sometimes employ sylphs in their fiction. Sylphs could create giant artistic clouds in the skies with their airy wings.[1]

References

  1. ^ John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Elemental" p 313-4, ISBN 0-312-19869-8

Translations: Sylph
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - sylfe, sylfide, luftånd

Nederlands (Dutch)
luchtgeest, gracieuze vrouw

Français (French)
n. - sylphide

Deutsch (German)
n. - Luftgeist, schlankes, zierliches Mädchen, (zo.) ein Kolibri

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - συλφίδα

Italiano (Italian)
silfide, colibrì

Português (Portuguese)
n. - silfo (m)

Русский (Russian)
грациозная, стройная девушка, сильфида, сильф

Español (Spanish)
n. - espíritu del aire, sílfide, silfo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - sylfid

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
空气精灵, 身材苗条的女人

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 空氣精靈, 身材苗條的女人

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 공기의 요정, 가냘프고 아름다운 소녀, 벌새의 일종

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 空気の精

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) السلف : كان خرافي , فتاة هيفاء رشيقه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עלמה דקת-גו, יעלת-חן, סוג יונק-דבש (ציפור), רוח רפאים של האוויר, סילפה‬


 
 
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sylphine
sylphid
sylphlike

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wordsmith Words. © 2009 Wordsmith.org. All rights reserved.  Read more
Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd Read more
Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sylph" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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