elf
[elf] 
[elvz] . | 1. | (in folklore) one of a class of preternatural beings, esp. from mountainous regions, with magical powers, given to capricious and often mischievous interference in human affairs, and usually imagined to be a diminutive being in human form; sprite; fairy. |
| 2. | a diminutive person, esp. a child. |
| 3. | a mischievous person, esp. a child. |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| elf (ělf) n. pl. elves (ělvz)
[Middle English, from Old English ælf; see albho- in Indo-European roots.] |
| ELF abbr. extremely low frequency |
| extremely low frequency n. Abbr. ELF A radio frequency below 300 hertz. |
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Elf
Elf\ ([e^]lf), n.; pl. Elves ([e^]lvz). [AS. [ae]lf, ylf; akin to MHG. alp, G. alp nightmare, incubus, Icel. [=a]lfr elf, Sw. alf, elfva; cf. Skr. [.r]bhu skillful, artful, rabh to grasp. Cf. Auf, Oaf.]1. An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks. Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier. --Shak. 2. A very diminutive person; a dwarf. Elf arrow, a flint arrowhead; -- so called by the English rural folk who often find these objects of prehistoric make in the fields and formerly attributed them to fairies; -- called also elf bolt, elf dart, and elf shot. Elf child, a child supposed to be left by elves, in room of one they had stolen. See Changeling. Elf fire, the ignis fatuus. --Brewer. Elf owl (Zo["o]l.), a small owl (Micrathene Whitneyi) of Southern California and Arizona.Elf
Elf\, v. t. To entangle mischievously, as an elf might do. Elf all my hair in knots. --Shak.Cite This Source
elf
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ELF
Binary format used by System V Release 4 Unix.
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| ELF extremely low frequency |
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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elf
in Germanic folklore, originally, a spirit of any kind, later specialized into a diminutive creature, usually in tiny human form. In the Prose, or Younger, Edda, elves were classified as light elves (who were fair) and dark elves (who were darker than pitch); these classifications are roughly equivalent to the Scottish seelie court and unseelie court. The notable characteristics of elves were mischief and volatility. They were believed at various times and in various regions to cause diseases in humans and cattle, to sit upon the breast of a sleeper and give him bad dreams (the German word for nightmare is Alpdrucken, or "elf-pressure"), and to steal human children and substitute changelings (deformed or weak elf or fairy children). In the British Isles, flint implements called elf-bolts, elf-arrows, or elf-shot (which are now known to be prehistoric tools used by the aboriginal Irish and the early Scots) were believed to be the weapons with which elves injured cattle. Elves occasionally also were benevolent and helpful. The second edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was published in 1777-84, calls the word elf obsolete but reports that belief in such creatures "still subsists in many parts of our own country. . . In the Highlands of Scotland, new-born children are watched till the christening is over, lest they should be stolen or changed by some of these phantastical existences." In time, elves came to be indistinct from fairies, though both older classics-such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem "Der Erlkonig" ("The Elf King")-and such modern classics as J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (1954-55) still treat elves as a distinct type.
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