eldritch

English

WOTD – 15 March 2007

Alternative forms

• eldrich, elrich, elritch

Etymology

From the earlier form elritch, of uncertain origin. The second element, -ritch, is generally taken to be Old English rīċe (“realm, kingdom”). Some think that the first element, el-, derives from an Old English root meaning “foreign, strange, other” (related to Old English ellende and modern English else); others think that it derives from elf. It was reintroduced into popular literature by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛl.dɹɪt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US):

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Adjective

eldritch (comparative more eldritch, superlative most eldritch)

1. Unearthly, supernatural, eerie, preternatural.
   • 1790 (date written; published 1791), Robert Burns, “Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale.”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, page 206:

     So Maggie runs, the witches follow, / Wi' mony an eldritch ſkreech and hollow.

   • 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC, part IV, page 22:

     I look'd upon the rotting Sea, / And drew my eyes away; / I look'd upon the eldritch deck / And there the dead men lay.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter VII, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     Pearl, in utter scorn of her mother's attempt to quiet her, gave an eldritch scream, and then became silent.

   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 2, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 11:

     And the woman, whose voice had risen to a kind of eldritch sing-song, turned with a skip, and was gone.

   • 1900 April 7, Jack London, “An Odyssey of the North”, in The Son of the Wolf: Tales of the Far North, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 210:

     The thing advanced to the table. The bright flame of the slush lamp caught its eye. It was amused, and gave voice to eldritch cackles which betokened mirth.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[14]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Surprise, horror, loathing were depicted on all faces while he eyed them with a ghostly grin. I anticipated some such reception, he began with an eldritch laugh, for which, it seems, history is to blame.

   • 1925, H. P. Lovecraft, “Introduction”, in Supernatural Horror in Literature:

     The Scandinavian Eddas and Sagas thunder with cosmic horror, and shake with the stark fear of Ymir and his shapeless spawn; whilst our own Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and the later Continental Nibelung tales are full of eldritch weirdness.

   • 2011, James D. Hornfischer, “28: Into the Light”, in Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal‎^[1], New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, retrieved 23 November 2022, page 276:

     The large vessel's dark form was massive, eldritch, as it loomed off the Cushing's port bow in the flash-lit darkness. This was the Hiei. The recognition of the battleship spread down the van, from the Cushing to the Laffey to the Sterett to the O'Bannon.

   • 2025 January 16, J. Hoberman, “David Lynch Dead: ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’ Director Was 78”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     But in 2022, he agreed to a cameo in one: Mr. Spielberg’s autobiographical feature “The Fabelmans,” where the enigmatic if not eldritch Mr. Lynch was cast as John Ford, the maker of westerns and the grand old curmudgeon of American cinema. It was a sentimental gesture that one can only call Lynchian.

Derived terms

• eldritchly
• eldritchness

Translations

unearthly, supernatural, eerie, preternatural

• Esperanto: preternatura
• Georgian: არაამქვეყნიური (araamkveq̇niuri)