vampire

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vampire

vampire in folklore, animated corpse that sucks the blood of humans. Belief in vampires has existed from the earliest times and has given rise to an amalgam of legends and superstitions. They were most commonly thought of as spirits or demons that left their graves at night to seek and enslave their victims; it was thought that the victims themselves became vampires. The vampire could be warded off with a variety of charms, amulets, and herbs and could finally be killed by driving a stake through its heart or by cremation. Sometimes the vampire assumed a nonhuman shape, such as that of a bat or wolf (see lycanthropy ). Probably the most famous vampire in literature is Count Dracula in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker .

Bibliography: See A. Masters, The Natural History of the Vampire (1972); N. Auerbach, Our Vampires, Ourselves (1995).

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vampire

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

vampire preternatural malignant being, supposed to suck blood; person who preys upon others; kind of bat supposed to suck blood. XVIII. — F. vampire or G. vampir — identical form in Sl. langs., in which there are vars. such as Russ. upȳr′, Pol. upiór.

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T. F. HOAD. "vampire." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "vampire." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (November 12, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-vampire.html

T. F. HOAD. "vampire." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-vampire.html

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