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  1. sylph love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A slim, graceful woman or girl.
  2. n. In the occult philosophy of Paracelsus, a being that has air as its element.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An imaginary being inhabiting the air; an elemental spirit of the air, according to the system of Paracelsus, holding an intermediate place between material and immaterial beings. Sylphs are male and female, have many human characteristics, and are mortal, but have no soul. The term in ordinary language is used as feminine, and often applied figuratively to a young woman or girl of graceful and slender proportions.
  2. n. In ornithology, one of various humming-birds with long forficate tail: so called from their grace and beauty: as, the blue-tailed sylph, Cynanthus forficatus. See cut under sappho. Synonyms Elf, Fay, etc. See fairy.

Wiktionary

  1. n. mythology An invisible being of the air
  2. n. The elemental being of air, usually female.
  3. n. A slender woman or girl, usually graceful and sometimes with the implication of sublime station over everyday people.
  4. n. A mainly dark green and blue hummingbird, the male of which has a long forked tail.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An imaginary being inhabiting the air; a fairy.
  2. n. Fig.: A slender, graceful woman.
  3. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of very brilliant South American humming birds, having a very long and deeply-forked tail.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a slender graceful young woman
  2. n. an elemental being believed to inhabit the air

Etymologies

  1. First attested in 1657. From New Latin sylphes, coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. The coinage may derive from sylva and nympha. (Wiktionary)
  2. New Latin sylpha, perhaps blend of Latin sylvestris, of the forest (from silva, sylva, forest) and Latin nympha, nymph; see nymph. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Your sylph is a delightful girl, but you must learn to be more light-hearted when you call on her.”

    Archive 2009-01-01

  • “A sylph is a fairy made of air who likes to play cruel tricks on little girls.”

    Archive 2009-01-01

  • “The sylph was a winner; and as her taper fingers, delicately gloved in pale-gray, were adjusting the coins which had been pushed toward her in order to pass them back again to the winning point, she looked round her with a survey too markedly cold and neutral not to have in it a little of that nature which we call art concealing an inward exultation.”

    Daniel Deronda

  • “But they don't call the sylph-like Ms. Middleton Weighty Katie,'' if you gather my drift.”

    Boston.com Top Stories

  • “_ -- Another butterfly, but belonging to a widely different group, is the "sylph" (_Hestia Jasonia_), called by the”

    Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon

  • “sylph" (_Hestia Jasonia_), called by the Europeans by the various names of _Floater, Spectre, _ and _Silver-paper-fly_, as indicative of its graceful flight.”

    Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and Productions, Volume 1 (of 2)

  • “Up until the time Clayton arrived, Mother hovered about me like a magic sylph, fluttering her tiny wings, touching a strand of hair here, brushing out a crease there, straightening my necklace and checking to be sure my perfume was not too strong and not too weak.”

    Simon & Schuster: Olivia

  • “For this past week I have read Mark of the Demon & Blood of the Demon by Diana Rowland, The Battle Sylph by LJ McDonald (trying very hard to find the shattered sylph) and Lion's Heat by Lora Leigh.”

    Friday Book Club

  • “By the time her first album came out, in 1985, she'd been given a thorough makeover: the cover photo showed a sleek-haired, golden-skinned sylph wearing an elegantly-draped white gown.”

    The Guardian: Whitney Houston obituary

  • “Sent by Ben and his beloved sylph bride, Willow, to an exclusive girls 'prep school, headstrong (and half-magical) Mistaya Holiday has found life in the natural world a less than perfect fit.”

    A Princess of Landover by Terry Brooks: Book summary

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synonyms (2)

Words with the same meaning

  1. fairy
  1. demo

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. woman
  1. adult female
  1. imaginary being
  1. imaginary creature

same context (14)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. pixy
  2. faun
  1. sprite
  2. salamander
  1. allegretto
  2. hamadryad
  1. protectress
  2. oak-leaf
  1. oread
  2. kelpie
  1. half-sister
  2. country-dance
  1. gnome
  2. moulded

reverse dictionary (8)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. fairy
  1. sylphine
  1. sylphish
  1. sylf
  1. sylphlike
  1. sylphid
  1. nature-spirit
  1. sylph

tags (4)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. bird
  1. fey
  1. ppwp_soundintelligent
  1. Silphidae

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘sylph’.

More lists containing ‘sylph’

Comments

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  • ruzuzu "The word "silphid" or "sylph", first seen in the sixteenth century in Paracelsus' works, refers to any race of spirits inhabiting the air and is described as mortal, but lacking soul. The word is also related to the Latin word sylva meaning "slender, graceful girl" and the Greek word nymph meaning "light, airy movements"."

    --http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silphidae&oldid=488077928 Jul 19, 2012

  • wordwench And excuse me, but a sylph is also an air elemental. I imagine they are all hmphing about now. Mar 12, 2009

  • wordwench Ahh. Now all the world is a hazy green and I await a warmish breeze. Mar 12, 2009

  • lechatnoir Yesteryear's sylph is today's MILF. Mar 12, 2009

  • reesetee No, it actually puts me in mind of silk and soft. Funny how that works, huh? :-) Mar 27, 2007

  • alguien Really? It doesn't sound like silt+phlegm to you? Mar 27, 2007

  • reesetee Hmm...I've always liked the word myself.... Mar 27, 2007

  • alguien Sylph sounds like it should be something disgusting, like the glop at the bottom of a polluted river. Mar 27, 2007

  • brtom "... a tinsel sylph's diadem on her brow ..."
    Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Jan 29, 2007

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‘sylph’ has been looked up 5541 times, loved by 19 people, added to 118 lists, commented on 9 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.