Sylph

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sylph \Sylph\, n. [F. sylphe, m., fr. Gr. ? a kind of grub,
     beetle, or moth; -- so called by Paracelsus.]
     1. An imaginary being inhabiting the air; a fairy.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Fig.: A slender, graceful woman.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Zool.) Any one of several species of very brilliant South
        American humming birds, having a very long and
        deeply-forked tail; as, the blue-tailed sylph ({Cynanthus
        cyanurus}).
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sylph
       n 1: a slender graceful young woman
       2: an elemental being believed to inhabit the air

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  34 Moby Thesaurus words for "sylph":
     Ariel, Befind, Corrigan, Finnbeara, Mab, Oberon, Titania, banshee,
     brownie, cluricaune, dwarf, elemental, elemental spirit, elf,
     fairy, fairy queen, fay, gnome, goblin, gremlin, hob, imp, kobold,
     leprechaun, ouphe, peri, pixie, pooka, puca, pwca, salamander,
     sprite, sylphid, undine
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  SYLPH, n.  An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when
  the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory
  smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization.  Sylphs were
  allied to gnomes, nymphs and salamanders, which dwelt, respectively,
  in earth, water and fire, all now insalubrious.  Sylphs, like fowls of
  the air, were male and female, to no purpose, apparently, for if they
  had progeny they must have nested in accessible places, none of the
  chicks having ever been seen.