banshee
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See also: Banshee
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Irish bean sí, from Old Irish ben síde (literally “woman of the fairy mound”). The term banshee entered English in 1771.
Pronunciation
Noun
banshee (plural banshees)
- (Scotland, Ireland, folklore) A female spirit, usually taking the form of a woman whose mournful wailing warns of an impending death.
- 1810, The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott, 3.VII:
- Late had he heard, in prophet's dream, / The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream […] .
- (derogatory) A noisy or ill-tempered woman.
- 1936, John Thomas McIntyre, Steps Going Down, page 15:
- Where's this old banshee that runs the place?
Usage notes
- A banshee was originally merely a fairy woman who sang a caoineadh (lament) for recently-deceased members of certain families. Translations of Irish works into English made a distinction between the banshee and other fairy folk that the original language and original stories do not seem to have, but from which sprung the current image of the banshee.
Derived terms
Descendants
Descendants of banshee
- → 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
Translations
in Irish folklore, a female spirit
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See also
References
- Joseph Wright, editor (1898), “BANSHEE, sb..”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volume I (A–C), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 158.
Anagrams
Portuguese
Noun
banshee f (plural banshees)
Scots
Etymology
Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic bean-shìdh or Irish ben síde.
Noun
banshee
References
- “banshee, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 12 June 2024, reproduced from W Grant and D D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.