sylph

American  

[silf] / sɪlf /

noun

• sylphs
  plural

1. a slender, graceful woman or girl.

2. (in folklore) one of a race of supernatural beings supposed to inhabit the air.

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sylph British  

/ sɪlf /

noun

1. a slender graceful girl or young woman

2. any of a class of imaginary beings assumed to inhabit the air

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Synonym Usage

Sylph, salamander, undine ( nymph ), gnome were imaginary beings inhabiting the four elements once believed to make up the physical world. All except the gnomes were female. Sylphs dwelt in the air and were light, dainty, and airy beings. Salamanders dwelt in fire: “a salamander that … lives in the midst of flames” (Addison). Undines were water spirits: By marrying a man, an undine could acquire a mortal soul. (They were also called nymphs, though nymphs were ordinarily minor divinities of nature who dwelt in woods, hills, and meadows as well as in waters.) Gnomes were little old men or dwarfs, dwelling in the earth: ugly enough to be king of the gnomes.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sylphic
  adjective
• sylphlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sylphs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sylph

1650–60; from New Latin sylphēs (plural), coined by Paracelsus; apparently blend of sylva (variant spelling of Latin silva “forest”) and Greek nýmphē nymph

Explanation

A sylph is a lovely, slim young woman or girl. You could describe a row of graceful ballerinas as sylphs. A sylph is always young, female, and slender, moving with an almost otherworldly lightness and grace. The original meaning of sylph was a mythical fairy-like creature, an air spirit that's mentioned by the poet Alexander Pope and appears in several Shakespeare plays as well. The 19th century French ballet "La Sylphide" is thought to have led to the use of sylph to describe slender girls, especially ballet dancers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sylph sylphs

This Galadriel is not the cosmically attuned sylph we know from the films.

From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2022

Ori and the Blind Forest sees a catlike, snow-white biped with wings who darts like a sylph across the screen on a journey to revivify an evanescent forest.

From Time ● Nov. 7, 2016

In this 1836 ballet, a Scottish laird named James is rude to a witch, who in turn ruins his life and kills his sweetheart, the fairylike sylph of the title.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2016

And at one point in Act Two, James re-enters and discovers that this forest contains not one sylph but many.

From New York Times ● May 3, 2015

“A monster, a maiden, a sylph of the ice. You kissed me, whispered stories in my ear. You sang to me and held me as I slept. Your laugh chased me into waking.”

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

She’s a superstar in a comedy universe dominated by boys’ clubs and sylphs, and she’s funny as hell.

From The Guardian ● May 30, 2016

Ms. Gerring’s female dancers aren’t sylphs or deities; they’re worthy colleagues to the four men.

From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2015

“Emeralds,” which is set to selections from Fauré’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” and “Shylock,” draws on balletic traditions of woodland glades and evasive sylphs, poets and sighing lovers, emphasized by Peter Harvey’s garden grove décor.

From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2011

Pieces such as Bleeding Fairies in 1977 deconstructed the ballet stereo-types of swans, nymphs, sylphs and earth mothers in a menstrual riot of radical feminism.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 30, 2011

The knockers— hardy mountain dwellers accustomed to the cold—carried those who would have otherwise frozen: some of the dryads, or the winged sylphs, whose bodies were limp in the wintry air.

From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo

Related Words

• gnome
• goblin
• imp
• leprechaun