Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
soucouyant. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
soucouyant, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
soucouyant in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
soucouyant you have here. The definition of the word
soucouyant will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
soucouyant, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From West Indies Creole.
Pronunciation
Noun
soucouyant (plural soucouyants)
- (Caribbean, folklore) A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly.
- Coordinate terms: loogaroo, jumbie
- 1986, Kenneth Ramchand, “Wayne Vincent Brown”, in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 90,
- We can notice, for example, that “Vampire” combines the folkloric soucouyant (blood-sucking old woman in the shape of a ball of fire), a science fiction creature (“clammy, from its bed of hairs / And thirsty” ), the moon again (Brown’s poems are obsessed by the moon);
- 2002, David E. Jones, Evil in Our Midst: A Chilling Glimpse of the World's Most Feared and Frightening Demons, Square One Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 133,
- The Soucouyant is an evil fire, a kind of witch, that robes itself entirely in the skin of an old woman to hide its true identity from neighbors.
2003, Ken Douglas, Jack Stewart, Diamond Sky, Bootleg Press, →ISBN, page 110:“The soucouyant is an old woman that sheds her skin,” Beth said. “She flies out of her house and looks for human blood. When she finds it, she changes into an animal of some kind and sucks the blood away.”
See also
Further reading