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sylph (SILF) - n., in Paracelsian occult philosophy, the elemental being of air; a slender, graceful woman or girl; any of several dark-green-and-blue hummingbirds (genus Aglaiocercus), the male of which has a long forked tail.
If you are sensing a pattern here, yes, Paracelsus did indeed coin or repurpose words for the elementals of the other two elements. I'd put in a pic of a hummer, but that'd distract from the main theme here. Coined (in the same posthumous work as undine) in Medieval Latin in the plural form sylphēs, apparently (he didn't explain) as a blend of Latin sylvestris, of the woods, and nympha, nymph (from Ancient Greek nýmphē).
---L.
If you are sensing a pattern here, yes, Paracelsus did indeed coin or repurpose words for the elementals of the other two elements. I'd put in a pic of a hummer, but that'd distract from the main theme here. Coined (in the same posthumous work as undine) in Medieval Latin in the plural form sylphēs, apparently (he didn't explain) as a blend of Latin sylvestris, of the woods, and nympha, nymph (from Ancient Greek nýmphē).
---L.
