ielfen

Etymology
Feminine of, equivalent to. Cognate with or a parallel formation to 🇨🇬.

Noun

 * 1) female elf
 * 2) * manuscript early 9th century, Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit Voccius Lat. 4o 106, f. 10r
 * Nimphae . aelfinni eadem . & muse | : "female elves"; also.
 * Oreades duun . aelfinni . | : "female mountain-elf."
 * Driades . uudu . aelfinne | : "female wood-elf."
 * Amadriades ua&er . aelfinñ | : "female water-elf."
 * Maides feld . aelfinne | : "female field-elf."
 * Naides sáe . aelfinne | : "female sea-elf."
 * 1) * manuscript c. 930s, First Cleopatra Glossary
 * "ang"

- Amadriades: feldælbinne ł elfenne; Maides: sæælfenne; Nymfæ: wæterælfenne; Naides: sæælfenne; Oreades: wuduælfenne


 * 1) * manuscript earlier eleventh century, Antwerp-London Glossary, f. 21r
 * "ang"

- Oriades. muntælfen. Driades. wuduelfen. Moides. feldelfen. Amadriades. wylde elfen. Naides. sæelfen. Castalidas. dunelfen

Usage notes

 * Ielfen is only attested in textually-related glosses to Isidore of Seville's , I 8.11.97, where it answers Latin . This does not imply ielfen meant "nymph," exactly, only that Old English had no precise word for nymphs, and the glossators thought female elves would make a useful approximation.
 * This tradition of glossing nympha with ielfen appears to have originated in the seventh or eighth century, though the surviving manuscripts are later.