Sluagh

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A supernatural entity from Irish folklore believed to be a host of restless spirits seeking to reclaim earthly bodies
2. A term describing ghostly beings or a supernatural horde associated with death and the afterlife in Celtic mythology
3. Referring to a gathering of otherworldly spirits or restless souls, often depicted as malevolent beings in folklore

Etymology: The Scottish Gaelic "sluagh" (also spelled "sluagh" in Irish as "slua") is a word for a host or crowd, and in folklore it names a troop of restless dead, often said to be the spirits of the unforgiven or the wicked who could not enter heaven or hell. The word comes from Old Irish "slog" and ultimately from a Celtic root meaning "army" or "host," the same idea of a gathered multitude that gives it its sense of a crowd on the move. In Highland belief the sluagh were thought to fly through the night air in great swarms, sometimes seeking the souls of the living, and people were advised to avoid speaking their names or venturing out on certain nights. Their numbers were imagined as enormous, and the word could be used of any large gathering, so the spirit sense grew out of the plain military and social meaning rather than replacing it.

Synonyms: host, army, crowd, multitude, horde

Antonyms: individual, single, solitary