sylph \silf\,
noun:
1. A slender, graceful woman or girl.
2. (In folklore) one of a race of supernatural beings supposed to inhabit the air.
The sylph had been as slender as a willow, with long silver hair and eyes like the dark between the stars.
-- Jenna Reynolds, "Kiss of Honor"
Ben was frantic. He lifted the stricken sylph in his arms and held her close against him
-- Terry Brooks, "Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold!"
The girl's slender and sylph-like figure, tinged with radiance from the sunset clouds, and overhung with the rich drapery of the silken curtains, and set within the deep frame of the window, was a perfect picture.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Snow-Image, and Other Tales"
Sylph was coined by Paracelsus. It is a blend of sylva, which meant "forest" in Latin, and the Greek word nymph.
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