different between hummingbird vs sylph

English

Alternative forms

• humming bird, humming-bird

Etymology

From humming (noun) +? bird, in reference to the humming sound made by the rapidly moving wings.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?h?m???b?d/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?h?m???b??d/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /?h?m?n?b??d/

Noun

hummingbird (plural hummingbirds)

1. Any of various small American birds in the family Trochilidae that have the ability to hover.
   • 1857 Thoreau, Henry David, journal entry, May 29, 1857. From Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Boston: Beacon Press, 1993, p238. (Originally published as the anthology Thoreau's bird-lore, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910, edited by Francis H. Allen.)

     Soon I hear the low all-pervading hum of an approaching hummingbird circling above the rock, [...]

Related terms

Translations

See also

• snowcap

English

Etymology

First attested in 1657. From New Latin sylphes, coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. The coinage may derive from Latin sylvestris (“of the woods”) and nympha (“nymph”). Related to sylvan.

More at Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?lf/
• Rhymes: -?lf

Noun

sylph (plural sylphs)

1. (mythology) An invisible being of the air.

   Synonym: sylphid

2. The elemental being of air, usually female.
3. (by extension) A slender woman or girl, usually graceful and sometimes with the implication of sublime station over everyday people.
   • 1811, Mary Bruton, Self-Control (novel):

4. (ornithology) Any of the mainly dark green and blue hummingbirds (genus Aglaiocercus), the male of which has a long forked tail.

Related terms

• sylvan (see for more terms)
• savage
• Silvanus

Translations

Further reading

• sylph on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, ?ISBN