ouphe

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From the same origin as oaf (elf child).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ouphe (plural ouphes)

  1. (obsolete) A small, often mischievous sprite; a fairy; a goblin; an elf.
    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:
      Strew good luck, ouphes, on every ſacred room,
      That it may ſtand 'till the perpetual Doom,
      In ſtate as wholſom, as in ſtate 'tis fit;
      Worthy the owner, as the owner it.
    • 1835, Joseph Rodman Drake, “The Culprit Fay”, in The Culprit Fa[y], published 1899, page 4:
      For an Ouphe has broken his vestal vow;
      He has loved an earthly maid,
      And left for her his woodly shade;
    • 1835, Review of The Culprit Fay and Other Poems by Joseph Rodman Drake and Alnwick Castle by Fitz-Greene Halleck, Southern Literary Messenger, Volume 2, page 329,
      The plot is as follows. An Ouphe, one of the race of Fairies, has "broken his vestal vow," [] in short, he has broken Fairy-law in becoming enamored of a mortal.