Etymology

banshee

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Today it means: A female spirit, usually taking the form of a woman whose mournful wailing warns of an impending death. Full definition →

Irish bean sí ← Old Irish ben síde
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The story

  1. Old Irish · derived fromben síde
  2. Irish · borrowed frombean sí
  3. English todaybanshee

Borrowed from Irish bean sí, from Old Irish ben síde (literally “woman of the fairy mound”). The term banshee entered English in 1771.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.