sylph
英 [s?lf]
美[s?lf]
- n. 空氣精靈；身材苗條的女人
中文詞源
sylph 氣精，氣仙，苗條女子
居住在空氣中的精靈，可能合成自拉丁語(yǔ) sylva,森林，樹(shù)林，nympha,水仙子，仙女。
英文詞源
- sylph (n.)
- 1650s, "air-spirit," from Modern Latin sylphes (plural), coined 16c. by Paracelsus (1493-1541), originally referring to any race of spirits inhabiting the air, described as being mortal but lacking a soul. Paracelsus' word seems to be an arbitrary coinage, but perhaps it holds a suggestion of Latin silva and Greek nymph, or Greek silphe "a kind of beetle," but French etymologists propose a Gaulish origin. The Century Dictionary comments that, "to occultists and quacks like Paracelsus words spelled with -y- look more Greek and convincing." The meaning "graceful girl" first recorded 1838, on the notion of "slender figure and light, airy movement" [OED].