Dullahan

See also: dullahan

English

Etymology

The surname is from Irish Ó Dubhlacháin, meaning "descendant of [the] Dubhlachán", variously interpreted as "black duckling" or "dark, sullen person", ultimately related to if not cognate with dullahan (“headless horserider”).

Noun

Dullahan (plural Dullahans)

1. Alternative letter-case form of dullahan
   • 2012, Armen Pogharian, Misaligned: The Celtic Connection, SynergEbooks, →ISBN, page 111:

     “With the Bodach defeated, no one thought to protect Gwen. A Dullahan discovered her and used the necklace to control her. Through her, it learned everything about Arthur's defenses.”

   • 2016, Mark Latham, Hunting the Headless Horseman, The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, →ISBN, page 47:

     It was never fully clear to Irving whether the Dullahan and the Gan Ceann were the same entity [...]. Most feared of all the Unseelie, the Dullahan is a bringer of dismay and death. The Dullahan is a headless rider, clad in a flowing black cape and usually mounted upon a black horse that spews flames from its nostrils […] The Dullahan carries its rotting head aloft in one hand like a lantern, the better to see immense distances, while it holds a whip made from a human spinal cord in the other.

Proper noun

Dullahan

1. A surname from Irish.