SYLPH
This article appears in Volume V26, Page 283 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SUS-TAV
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SYLPH , an imaginary spirit of the air; according to Paracelsus , the first modern writer who uses the word, an air-elemental, coming between material and immaterial beings. In current usage, the term is applied to a feminine spirit or fairy, and is often used in a figurative sense of a graceful, slender girl or young See Also: - YOUNG
- YOUNG, A
- YOUNG, ARTHUR (1741-1820)
- YOUNG, BRIGHAM (1801-1877)
- YOUNG, CHARLES MAYNE (1777–1856)
- YOUNG,
EDWARD (1683–1765) - YOUNG, JAMES (1811-1883)
- YOUNG,
THOMAS See Also: - THOMAS
- THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
- THOMAS (d. 110o)
- THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
- THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
- THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
- THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
- THOMAS,
ISAIAH (1749-1831) - THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
- THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
- THOMAS, ST
- THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
- THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)
(1773-1829) woman. The form of the word points to a Greek origin, and Aristotle 's aLX4ni, a kind of beetle (Hist. anim-. 8. 17. 8), has usually been taken as the source. Similarly, the earthelementals or earth-spirits were in Paracelsus 's nomenclature, " gnomes " (Gr. yv& n , intelligence, yzyvwazcety, to know) as being the spirits that gave the secrets of the earth to mortals. Littre, however, takes the word to be Old Celtic, and meaning " genius," and states that it occurs in such forms as sylfi, sylfi, &c., in inscriptions , or latinized as sulevae or suleviae.
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