elfin

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English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɛlfɪn/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛlfɪn

Etymology 1

From Middle English elven, from Old English elfen, ælfen (“nymph, spirit, fairy”), feminine of elf, ælf (“elf”), equivalent to elf +‎ -in. Cognate with Middle High German elbinne (“a fairy, nymph”).

Noun

elfin (plural elfins)

  1. An elf; an inhabitant of fairy-land.
  2. A little urchin or child.
  3. Any of the butterflies in the subgenus Incisalia of the North American lycaenid genus Callophrys.

Etymology 2

Partly from attributive use of Etymology 1, but reanalysed by Spenser as if equivalent to elf +‎ -in. Compare elven (adj), elvan.

Adjective

elfin (comparative more elfin, superlative most elfin)

  1. Relating to or resembling an elf or elves, especially in its tiny size or features.
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, “Anarchy”, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, →OCLC, page 33:
      Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.
    • 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club:
      He’s forced to travel back to 1969 to prevent an evil alien (a shockingly effective, nearly unrecognizable Jemaine Clement of Flight Of The Conchords, playing sort of a psychotic extraterrestrial-biker serial killer) from destroying the world by killing Brolin. Smith is aided in his quest by an elfin, time-jumping alien with psychic powers played by another Coen brothers veteran, A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
elven — see elven

Anagrams

Dutch

Alternative forms

Etymology

From elf +‎ -in.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlˈfɪn/
  • Hyphenation: el‧fin
  • Rhymes: -ɪn

Noun

elfin f (plural elfinnen, diminutive elfinnetje n, masculine elf)

  1. A female elf (fantasy humanoid).
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