Sylphids

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of ethereal, often slender beings associated with air and thought in various mythologies
2. Entities described as graceful and delicate, typically linked to the element of air and representing a lightness of being
3. Mythical creatures believed to be a form of spirit or elemental, embodying the airy qualities of gracefulness and beauty

Etymology: "Sylphids" is the plural of "sylphid," and the word traces back to a coinage by the Swiss-born alchemist and physician Paracelsus in the 16th century, who classed sylphs among the spirits of the four elements, air being theirs. His Latin-influenced invention is usually linked to the Greek "silphe," a word for a kind of insect or grub, though the connection is uncertain and may be coincidental. The word arrived in English in the 18th century, when Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" (1712) popularised the sylphs as delicate airy spirits who guard a young woman. Because "sylphid" is formed from "sylph" with the Greek-derived suffix "-id," meaning "descendant of" or "offspring of," it is sometimes taken to mean something like "child of the sylph," though this sense is a later analogy rather than a documented original. The suffix is also found in words like "dryad" and "naiad," where it is more firmly established.