ban·shee

also ban·shie (băn′shē)

A female spirit in Gaelic folklore believed to presage, by wailing, a death in a family.

[Irish Gaelic bean sídhe, woman of the fairies, banshee : bean, woman (from Old Irish ben; see g^wen- in Indo-European roots) + sídhe, fairy (from Old Irish síde, genitive of síd, fairy mound; see sed- in Indo-European roots).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

banshee

(ˈbænʃiː; bænˈʃiː)

(European Myth & Legend) (in Irish folklore) a female spirit whose wailing warns of impending death

[C18: from Irish Gaelic bean sídhe, literally: woman of the fairy mound]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ban•shee

or ban•shie

(ˈbæn ʃi, bænˈʃi)

n.

(in Irish folklore) a spirit in the form of a wailing woman who appears to or is heard by members of a family as a sign that one of them is about to die.

[1765–75; < Irish bean sídhe literally, woman of a fairy mound; see sídh]

banshee

An Irish word meaning woman of the fairies, used to mean a female spirit whose wail is a portent of death.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

banshee - (Irish folklore) a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death

banshie

folklore - the unwritten lore (stories and proverbs and riddles and songs) of a culture

Emerald Isle, Hibernia, Ireland - an island comprising the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

disembodied spirit, spirit - any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings

Translations

Banshee

موجود وهمی شکل به شکل روح

Banshee

banshee elf fee

banshee

n (Ir Myth) → Banshee f, → Todesfee f; to scream like a banshee → gespenstisch heulen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

A shell screaming like a storm banshee went over the huddled heads of the reserves.

With the passionate song of the bullets and the banshee shrieks of shells were mingled loud catcalls and bits of facetious advice concerning places of safety.

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" 'Tis the banshee. Somebody is marked for the grave."

"Well, I know that banshee," said Wilson, cheerfully, "ignorant as you think I am of these things.

I suppose poor Nolan would have brought in his banshee and said it was supernaturally possible.

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"It was the work of the banshee all right," muttered Brady.

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They were a species of tutelary sprite, or Banshee; although winged and feathered differently from most other guardian angels.

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"A couple of years ago I had a seven-ton cutter-rigged yacht, the Banshee, and we ran over to Madeira from Falmouth."

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In return for this mark of attention, Tom immediately walked upon his hands to the window, and--if the expression be allowable-- looked in with his shoes: besides rattling his feet upon the glass like a Banshee upside down.

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My own mother's family had a banshee; and, now I come to think of it, it has comforted me in many a cold hour."

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No curtain veils the darkness of the night, but the discoloured shutters are drawn together, and through the two gaunt holes pierced in them, famine might be staring in--the banshee of the man upon the bed.

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I thought of hobgoblins and banshees, and will-o'-the-wisps, and those wicked girls who sit up all night on rocks, and lure people into whirl- pools and things; and I wished I had been a better man, and knew more hymns; and in the middle of these reflections I heard the blessed strains of "He's got `em on," played, badly, on a concertina, and knew that we were saved.

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