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SYLPH

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 283 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SYLPH , an imaginary spirit of the See also:

air; according to See also:Paracelsus, the first See also:modern writer who uses the word, an air-elemental, coming between material and immaterial beings. In current usage, the See also:term is applied to a feminine spirit or See also:fairy, and is often used in a figurative sense of a graceful, slender girl or See also:young woman. The See also:form of the word points to a See also:Greek origin, and See also:Aristotle's aLX4ni, a See also:kind of See also:beetle (Hist. anim-. 8. 17. 8), has usually been taken as the source. Similarly, the earthelementals or See also:earth-See also:spirits were in Paracelsus's nomenclature, " See also:gnomes " (Gr. yv& n , intelligence, yzyvwazcety, to know) as being the spirits that gave the secrets of the earth to mortals. See also:Littre, however, takes the word to be Old See also:Celtic, and meaning " See also:genius," and states that it occurs in such forms as sylfi, sylfi, &c., in See also:inscriptions, or latinized as sulevae or suleviae.

End of Article: SYLPH

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