The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable


For a complete copy of the 1894 edition, see here.

Fairies good and bad.
   AFREET or EFREET, one of the Jinn tribe, of which there are five. (See Story of the Second Calendar. )
   APPARITION. A ghost.
   ARIEL. (See Ariel.)
   BANSHEE or BENSHEE, an Irish fairy attached to a house. (See Banshee.)
   BOGGART. (Scotch.) A local hobgoblin or spirit.
   BOGIE or BOGLE, a bugbear (Scotch form of bug . (See Bogie.)
   BROWNIE, a Scotch domestic fairy; the servantsfriend if well treated. (See Brownie.)
   BUG or BUGBEAR, any imaginary thing that frightens a person. (Welsh, bwg. (See Bug.)
   CAULD LAD (The, the Brownie of Hilton Hall. (See Cauld Lad.)
   DJINN, JIN, or GINN (Arabian).(See Jinn.)
   DUENDE (3 syl.), a Spanish house-spirit.(See Duende.)
   DWARE, a diminutive being, human or superhuman. (Anglo-Saxon, dweorg. )
   DWRRGER, DWERGUGH, or DUERGAR, Gotho-German dwarfs, dwelling in rocks and hills. (Anglo-Saxon,dweorgh. )
   ELF (plu. ELVES), fairies of diminutive size, supposed to be fond of practical jokes. (Anglo-Saxon, ælf. (See Elf.)
   ELLE-MAID or ELLE-WOMAN,ELLE-FOLK, of Scandinavia.
   ESPRIT FOLLRT, the house-spirit of France.
   FAIRY or FAERIE (plu. FAIRIES), a supernatural being, fond of pranks, but generally pleasing. (German and French, fee.)
   FAMILIAR (A, an evil spirit attendant, on witches, etc. (See Familiar.)
   FATA, an Italian fay, or white lady.
   FATES, the three spirits (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos) which preside over the destiny of every individual. (Latin, fata. )
   FAY (plu. FAYS), same as Fairy (q.v. .)
   FEAR DEARG (The, i.e. Red Man. A house-spirit of Munster.)
   GENII (plu.). The sing. genie and genius. Eastern spirits, whether good or bad, who preside over a man or nation. "He is my evil [or good] genius." (Latin, genius. (See Genius.)
   GHOST, the immaterial body or noumenon of a human being. Supposed to be free to visit the earth at night-time, but obliged to return to its Hades at the first dawn.
   GHOUL, a demon that feeds on the dead. (Persian.)
   GNOME (1 syl.), the guardian of mines, quarries, etc.(Greek, (See Gnomes.)
   GOBLIN or HOBGOBLIN, a phantom spirit. (French,gobelin; German, kobold. )
   GOOD FOLK. (The . The Brownies or house-spirits.)
   GUARDIAN-ANGEL, an angelic spirit which presides over the destiny of each individual.
   HABUNDIA, queen of the White Ladies.
   HAG (A ), a female fury. Milton (Comus 445) speaks of "blue meagre hags."
   H AMADRYAD, a wood-nymph. Each tree has its own wood-nymph, who dies when the tree dies.
   HOBGOBLIN. (See above, GOBLIN.) Hob is Robin,as Hodge is Roger.
   HORNS or HORNIE, the Devil. (See Hornie.)
   IMP, a puny demon or spirit of mischief. (Welsh,imp. )
   JACK-A-LANTERN, a bog or marsh spirit who delights to mislead
   JINN or GINN. (See Jinn.) These Arabian spirits were formed of "smokeless fire.")
   KELPIE (2 syl.). In Scotland, an imaginary spirit of the waters in the form of a horse. (See Kelpie.)
   KOBOLD, a German household goblin, also frequenting mines. (German, kobold. (See Kobold.)
   LAM'IA (plu. LAM'LE), a hag or demon. Keats's Lamia is a serpent which had assumed the form of a beautiful woman, beloved by a young man, and gets a soul. (Latin, Lamia. (See Lamia.)
   LAMIES, African spectres, having the head of a woman and tail of a serpent. (See Lamies.)
   L AR (plu. LARES) (2 syl.), Latin household deities. (See Lares.)
   LEPRECHAUN, a fairy shoemaker.
   MAB, the faries' midwife. Sometimes incorrectly called queen of the fairies. (Welsh, mab. (See Mab.)
   MANDRAKE. (See Mandrake.)
   MERMAID, a sea-spirit, the upper part a woman and the lower half a fish.
   MERROWS, both male and female, are spirits of the sea, of human shape from the waist upwards, but from the waist downwards are like a fish. The females are attractive, but the males have green teeth, green hair, pig's eyes, and red noses. Fishermen dread to meet them.
   MONACIELLO or LITTLE MONK, a house-spirit of Naples.
   NAIAD (plu. NAIADES [3 syl.] or NAIADS [2 syl.]), water-nymphs. (Latin.) (See Naiads.)
   NIS or NISSE (2 syl.), a Kobold or Brownie. A Scandinavian fairy friendly to farmhouses. (Contraction of Nicolaus. )
   NIX (female, N), a water-spirit. The nix has green teeth, and wears a green hat; the nixie is very beautiful.
   OBERON, king of the fairies.
   OGRE [pronounce og'r, an inhabitant of fairyland said to feed on infant children. (French.)
   ORENDS, mountain nymphs. (Greek, oros. )
   OUPHE (2 syl.), a fairy or goblin,
   PERI, a Persian fairy. Evil peris are called "Deevs."
   PIGWIDGEON, a fairy of very diminutive size.
   PIXY or PIXIE (also pisgy, pisgie, a Devonshire fairy, same as Puck.
   POUKE (1 syl.), same as Puck. (See Pouke.)
   PUCK, a merry little fairy spirit, full of fun and harmless mischief. (Icelandic and Swedish, puke. (See Puck.)
   ROBIN- GOODFELLOW, another name for PUCK.)(See Robin ...)
   SALAMANDER, a spirit which lives in fire. (Latin and Greek, salamandra. (See Salamandra.)
   SHADES, ghosts.
   SPECTRE, a ghost,
   SPOOK (in Theosophy), an elemental.
   SPRITE, a spirit.
   STROMKARL, a Norwegian musical spirit, like Neck. (See Stromkarl.)
   SYLPH, a spirit of the air; so named by the Rosicrucians and Cabalists. (Greek, silphe, French, sylphide. (See Sylphs.)
   TRITON, a sea deity, who dwells with Father Neptune in a golden palace at the bottom of the sea. The chief employment of tritons is to blow a conch to smooth the sea when it is ruffled.
   TROLL, a hill-spirit. Hence Trolls are called Hill-people or Hill-folk, supposed to be immensely rich, and especially dislike noise. (See Trolls.)
   UN'DINE (2 syl.), a water-nymph. (Latin, unda. (See Undine.)
   URCHIN properly means a hedgehog, and is applied to mischievous children and small folk generally. (See Urchin.)
   VAMPIRE (2 syl.), the spirit of a dead man that haunts a house and sucks the blood of the living. A Hungarian superstition. (See Vampire.)
   WERE-WOLF (Anglo-Saxon, wer-wulf, man-wolf), a human being, sometimes in one form and sometimes in another. (See WerWolf.)
   WHITE LADIES OF NORMANDY. (See White Ladies.)
   WHITE LADY (The of the royal family of Prussia. A "spirit" said to appear before the death of one of the family. (See White Lady.)
   WHITE LADY OF AVENEL (2 syl.), a tutelary spirit.
   WHITE LADY OF IRELAND (The, the banshee or domestic spirit of a family.)
   WHITE MERLE (The, of the old Basques. A white fairy bird, which, by its singing, restored sight to the blind.)
   WIGHT, any human creature, as a "Highland wight." Dwarfs and all other fairy creatures.
   WILL-O'-THE-WISP, a spirit of the bogs, whose delight is to mislead belated travellers.
   WRAITH (Scotch), the ghost of a person shortly about to die or just dead, which appears to survivors, sometimes at a great distance off. (See Wraith, Household Spirits.)

Fairies are the dispossessed spirits which once inhabited human bodies, but are not yet meet to dwell with the "saints in light."

"All those airy shapes you now behold
Were human bodies once, and clothed with
earthly mould;
Our souls, not yet prepared for upper light,
Till doomsday wander in the shades of night."
Dryden: The Flower and the Leaf.
Fairing (A ). A present from a fair. The ing is a patronymic = a descendant of, come from, belonging to.
"Fairings come thus plentifully in."
Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2.
Fairlimb The sister of Bitelas and daughter of Rukenaw, the ape; in the tale of Reynard the Fox.

Fairservice (Andrew ). A shrewd Scotch gardener at Osbaldistone Hall. (Sir Walter Scott: Rob Roy. )

Fairy of nursery mythology is the personification of Providence. The good ones are called fairies, elves, elle-folks, and fays; the evil ones are urchins, ouphes, ell-maids, and ell-women.

"Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
You moonshine revellers, and shades of night,
You ouphen-heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your office."
Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5.
   The dress of the fairies. They wear a red conical cap; a mantle of green cloth, inlaid with wild flowers; green pantaloons, buttoned with bobs of silk; and silver shoon. They carry quivers of adder-slough, and bows made of the ribs of a man buried where "three lairds' lands meet;" their arrows are made of bog-reed, tipped with white flints, and dipped in the dew of hemlock; they ride on steeds whose hoofs would not "dash the dew from the cup of a harebell." (Cromek.
"Fairies small, two foot tall,
With caps red on their head."
Dodsley's Old Plays; Fuimus Troes, i, 5.
Fairy Darts Flint arrow-heads, supposed at one time to have been thrown by fairies in their pranks.

Fairy Hillocks Little knolls of grass, like mole-hills, said in the "good old times" to be the homes of fairies.

Fairy Ladies or Mage, such as Urganda, the guardian of Amadigi; the fair Oriana; Silvana, the guardian of Alidoro; Lucina, the protectress of Alidoro and his lady-love, the maiden-warrior, Mirinda; Eufrosina, the sister of Lucina; Argea, the protectress of Floridante, and Filide'a, sister of Ardea; all in Tasso's Amadigi.

Fairy Land The land where fairies are supposed to dwell; dreamland; a place of great delight and happiness.

"The fairest of fairy lands - the land of home."
Jean Ingelow: The Letter, part i. stanza 31.
Fairy Loaves or Fairy Stones. Fossil sea-urchins (echini ), said to be made by the fairies.

Fairy Money Found money. Said to be placed by some good fairy at the spot where it was picked up. "Fairy money" is apt to be transformed into leaves.

Fairy Rings Circles of rank or withered grass, often seen in lawns, meadows, and grass-plots. Said to be produced by the fairies dancing on the spot. In sober truth, these rings are simply an agaric or fungus below the surface, which has seeded in a circular range, as many plants do. Where the ring is brown and almost bare, the "spawn" is of a greyish-white colour. The grass dies because the spawn envelops the roots so as to prevent their absorbing moisture; but where the grass is rank the "spawn" is dead, and serves as manure to the young grass.

"You demi-puppets, that
By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites."
Shakespeare: Tempest, v. 1.

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