Witchy Words: Nature & Fae
acanaceous:
adjective Of or pertaining to something bearing prickles or thistles; something prickly.
accrescent:
adjective Growing; increasing.
adjective (Bot.) Growing larger after flowering.
afterglow:
noun The atmospheric glow that remains for a short time after sunset.
noun The light emitted after removal of a source of energy, especially.
noun The glow of an incandescent metal as it cools.
agerasia:
noun A green old age; freshness and vigor of mind and body late in life.
noun An outward appearance more youthful than one’s true age
alizarin:
noun A peculiar red coloring matter formerly obtained from madder, and extensively used as a dyestuff.
alpenglow:
noun A rosy glow that suffuses snow-covered mountain peaks at dawn or dusk on a clear day.
amaranthine:
adjective Of, relating to, or resembling an amaranth.
adjective Eternally beautiful and unfading; everlasting.
adjective Deep purple-red.
amnicolist:
noun One who dwells by a river or upon its banks.
amphiscii:
noun plural The inhabitants of the tropic, whose shadows in one part of the year are cast to the north, and in the other to the south, according as the sun is south or north of their zenith.
analemma:
noun A graduated scale in the shape of a figure eight, indicating the sun’s declination and the equation of time for every day of the year, often found on sundials and globes.
noun A form of sun-dial, now disused.
noun In geometry, an orthographic projection of the sphere on the plane of the meridian, the eye being supposed to be at an infinite distance, and in the east or west point of the horizon.
antelucan:
adjective Held or being before light; – a word applied to assemblies of Christians, in ancient times of persecution, held before light in the morning.
adjective Before dawn
antichthon:
noun In Pythagorean astronomy, an imaginary invisible planet continually opposing the earth and eclipsing the central fire, round which it was supposed to revolve, in common with the earth, moon, sun, certain planets, and the fixed stars.
noun plural The inhabitants of an opposite hemisphere.
apricate:
verb To bask in the sun.
apricity:
noun The warmness of the sun in winter.
argent:
noun Silver as conventionally represented in heraldry by the color white.
noun The metal silver.
ascian:
noun A person who casts no shadow at noon.
noun One of the Ascii.
asteriated:
adjective Radiated, with diverging rays.
aurelia:
noun In entomology, the nymph, chrysalis, or pupa of a lepidopterous insect. See chrysalis.
batwing:
adjective Shaped like the wing of a bat.
noun The wing of a bat, or its shape.
beebread:
noun A brownish substance consisting of a mixture of pollen and honey and used by bees as food.
beetrave:
noun Same as beet-radish. In Scotland also beetraw and beetrie.
noun The common beet (Beta vulgaris).
bird of passage:
noun A migratory bird.
noun A person who moves from place to place frequently.
bosky:
adjective Having an abundance of bushes, shrubs, or trees.
adjective Of or relating to woods.
botryoidal:
adjective Shaped like a bunch of grapes. Used especially of mineral formations.
bower:
noun A dwelling or habitation; particularly, a cottage; an unpretentious residence; a rustic abode.
noun An inner room; any room in a house except the hall or public room; hence, a bedchamber.
brumal:
adjective Of, relating to, or occurring in winter.
caesious:
adjective Of the color of lavender; pale blue with a slight mixture of gray.
cantrip:
a mischievous or playful act; a trick.
cathemeral:
adjective Relating to organisms that have sporadic and random intervals during the day or night in which food is acquired
caul:
noun A portion of the amnion, especially when it covers the head of a fetus at birth.
noun A form used in gluing veneers to curved surfaces. It is shaped to the exact curve or form of the piece to be veneered, and is clamped against the veneer until the glue has set.
noun A stalk; stem.
chaplet:
noun A wreath or garland for the head.
noun A string of beads resembling a rosary, used to count iterations in a devotional sequence of prayers.
chatoyant:
adjective Having a changeable luster.
noun A chatoyant stone or gemstone, such as the cat’s-eye.
chirrup:
intransitive verb To utter a series of chirps.
intransitive verb To make clucking or clicking sounds with the lips, as in urging on a horse.
cimmerian:
adjective perpetually dark or gloomy
cloudland:
noun A realm of imagination or fantasy.
noun The region of the clouds; a place above the earth or away from the practical things of life; dream-land; the realm of fancy.
noun Dreamland.
cobweb:
noun The web spun by a spider to catch its prey.
noun Something resembling the web of a spider in gauziness or flimsiness.
cockleshell:
noun The shell of a cockle.
col:
noun A pass between two mountain peaks or a gap in a ridge.
noun A mischievous fairy; the will o’ the wisp, regarded as a fairy.
copse:
noun A thicket of small trees or shrubs; a coppice.
coronule:
noun In botany, a coronet or little crown of a seed; the downy tuft on seeds.
noun The little calyx-like body which crowns the nucule in the genus Chara.
noun The crown of spines which sometimes occurs at the apex of the frustule in diatoms.
counterglow:
noun The light from the eastern sky after the sun has set: an apparent reflection of the sunset twilight glow, but really the independent illumination of the eastern atmospheric dust and haze by sunbeams that pass far above the observer through the upper atmosphere when the sun is below the horizon. The lower limit of the counter-glow is the twilight-arch.
noun A patch of extremely faint luminosity in the heavens always opposite to the sun. It is supposed to be connected with the zodiacal light.
cygnet:
noun A young swan.
deliquium:
noun In chem., a melting or liquefaction by absorption of moisture, as of a salt.
noun Figuratively, a melting or maudlin mood of mind.
noun An interruption or failure of the sun’s light, whether caused by an eclipse or otherwise.
doeskin:
noun The skin of a doe.
noun A fine, soft, smooth woolen fabric.
dusky:
adjective Having low diffused light; dim or shadowy.
earlet:
noun A small ear.
noun An ear-ring.
noun In botany, an auricle, as in certain foliose Hepaticæ.
earthlight:
noun The sunlight reflected from the earth to the moon, by which we see faintly, when the moon is near the sun (either before or after new moon), that part of the moon’s disk unillumined by direct sunlight, or “the old moon in the arms of the new.”
earthshine:
noun The sunlight reflected from the earth’s surface that illuminates part of the moon not directly lighted by the sun.
effloresce:
intransitive verb To blossom; bloom.
intransitive verb To develop or flourish.
intransitive verb To become a powder by losing water of crystallization, as when a hydrated crystal is exposed to air.
egeria:
noun A woman adviser or counselor.
noun In Roman mythology, a prophetic nymph or divinity, the instructress of Numa Pompilius, and invoked as the giver of life.
noun A knot of hair twisted by elves; a knot twisted as if by elves; hence, in the plural, hair in unusual disorder.
noun A lock of hair that is tangled.
ember-goose:
noun A name of the great northern diver or loon, Colymbus torquatus or Urinator immer.
empurple:
transitive & intransitive verb To make or become purple.
empyreal:
adjective Empyrean.
adjective Of the sky; celestial.
adjective Elevated; sublime.
ephemeral:
adjective Lasting for a markedly brief time.
adjective Having a short lifespan or a short annual period of aboveground growth. Used especially of plants.
noun Something, especially a plant, that is ephemeral.
ephydriad:
noun A water-nymph.
estival:
adjective Of, relating to, or appearing in summer.
exuvia:
noun biology The remains of an exoskeleton that is left after an insect, crustacean or arachnid has molted.
fancymonger:
noun One who deals in fancies or tricks of imagination.
fen-fire:
noun The will-o’-the-wisp; an ignis fatuus.
ferine:
adjective Untamed; feral.
noun A wild beast; a beast of prey.
flutterby:
noun butterfly
foreworld:
noun A previous world or state of the world; specifically, the world before the flood.
foxfire:
noun A phosphorescent glow produced by certain bioluminescent fungi that grow on rotting wood.
frostwork:
noun The beautiful covering of hoar frost deposited on shrubs or other objects, and with the finest effects on windows.
fulgid:
adjective rare Shining; glittering; dazzling.
adjective Scintillant, coruscant; marked by fleeting flashes of radiant light.
fulgurate:
intransitive verb To emit flashes of lightning.
glade:
noun An open space in a forest.
noun A tract of marshland.
glin:
noun A hazy appearance on the horizon at sea, indicating the approach of foul weather.
gloam:
noun Twilight; gloaming.
intransitive verb To begin to grow dark; to grow dusky.
gossamer:
noun A fine film of cobwebs that is often seen floating in the air or is caught on bushes or grass.
noun Something that is light, delicate, or sheer, such as fabric.
adjective Sheer, light, or delicate: synonym: airy.
gowan:
noun A yellow or white wildflower, especially a daisy.
noun The dandelion.
gridelin:
noun A pale-purple or gray-violet color.
noun A cat, especially an old female cat.
grotto:
noun A small cave or cavern.
grove:
noun A small wood or stand of trees lacking dense undergrowth.
noun A group of trees planted and cultivated for the production of fruit or nuts.
hamadryad:
noun Greek & Roman Mythology A wood nymph who lives only as long as the tree of which she is the spirit lives.
hinterland:
noun The land directly adjacent to and inland from a coast.
noun A region remote from urban areas; backcountry.
holt:
noun A wood or grove; a copse.
noun A hole; a burrow; specifically, a deep hole in a river for the protection of fish.
hydriad:
noun In mythology, a water-nymph.
incalescent:
adjective Growing hotter or more ardent.
indweller:
noun One who dwells in a place; an inhabitant.
inflorescence:
noun A cluster of flowers arranged in a characteristic way on a stem.
noun The process of flowering.
inspiral:
adjective astronomy Describing the paths of a pair of binary stars that are losing energy, and spiralling in towards each other
involute:
adjective Intricate; complex.
adjective Having the margins rolled inward.
adjective Having whorls that enclose and obscure earlier whorls. Used of a gastropod shell.
iridal:
adjective Of or pertaining to the iris or rainbow; prismatic.
kissing-gate:
noun A narrow gate, not wide enough for two to pass as strangers.
lacewing:
noun Any of various neuropteran insects of several families, especially Chrysopidae and Hemerobiidae, having predaceous larvae and, in the adult, two pairs of delicate, many-veined wings and long antennae.
noun Same as lace-winged fly.
latibulum:
noun A hiding-place; a cave; a burrow.
lee:
noun Nautical The side away from the direction from which the wind blows.
noun An area sheltered from the wind.
lilliputian:
noun A very small person or being.
adjective Very small, diminutive
limoniad:
noun A nymph of the meadows; – called also Limniad.
loam:
noun Soil composed of a mixture of sand, clay, silt, and organic matter.
lovat:
noun A dusty green-blue colour.
meliad:
noun In Greek myth, a nymph of fruit-trees or of flocks.
menhir:
noun In archaeology, one of a class of monumental stones of greater or less antiquity, found in various parts of Europe, also in Africa and in regions of Asia, especially in the Khassian hills.
noun A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially of prehistoric times.
midrib:
noun The central or principal vein of a leaf.
mire:
noun An area of wet, soggy, muddy ground; a bog.
moon-kissed:
adjective Lit by moonlight.
moor:
noun An uncultivated area covered with low-growing vegetation and often high but poorly drained.
morass:
noun An area of low-lying, soggy ground.
naiad:
noun Greek Mythology One of the nymphs who lived in and presided over brooks, springs, and fountains.
noun The aquatic nymph of certain insects, such as a mayfly, damselfly, or dragonfly.
nepheliad:
noun A cloud-nymph
nepheligenous:
adjective that produces clouds of smoke
nightertale:
noun Night-time.
nimbus:
noun A cloudy radiance said to surround a classical deity when on earth.
noctilucent:
adjective Luminous at night. Used especially of certain high clouds.
noctivagant:
adjective Going about in the night; night-wandering.
adjective Born of, or produced from, clouds.
nyctinasty:
noun A diurnal movement of plant parts, such as the opening during the day and closing during the night of certain flowers.
nymphæum:
noun Alternative spelling of nymphaeum.
obnubilate:
transitive verb To darken or obscure with clouds; becloud.
ophidian:
adjective Of, relating to, or resembling a snake or the snakes.
noun A snake.
oread:
noun Any of a group of mountain nymphs.
overmorrow:
noun The day after to-morrow.
owllight:
noun Glimmering or imperfect light; twilight.
pavonine:
adjective Of or resembling a peacock.
peat:
noun Partially decomposed vegetable matter, usually mosses, found in bogs and used as fertilizer and fuel.
penumbra:
noun A partial shadow, as in an eclipse, between regions of complete shadow and complete illumination.
noun The diffuse outer part of a sunspot.
periscian:
noun One of the Periscii.
adjective Having the shadow moving all around.
periscii:
noun The inhabitants of the polar regions (whose shadows, during part of the summer, make a complete revolution).
perse:
adjective Dark grayish blue or purple.
pervigilium:
noun A watching all night; a vigil; in pathology, disinclination to sleep; wakefulness.
petrichor:
noun The distinctive scent which accompanies the first rain after a long warm dry spell.
phantasm:
noun Something apparently seen but having no physical reality; a phantom or an apparition.
philopatry:
noun The tendency of an individual to return to, or stay in, its home area, or birthplace.
pleochroism:
noun The property possessed by some crystals of exhibiting different colors, especially three different colors, when viewed along different axes.
puckish:
adjective Mischievous; impish.
reillumine:
transitive verb To illumine again or anew; to reillume.
rill:
noun A small brook; a rivulet.
noun A deep, winding valley on the moon.
rime:
noun A white incrustation of ice formed when supercooled water droplets freeze almost instantly on contact with a solid surface.
rine:
noun A watercourse or ditch.
rosmarine:
noun Sea-dew.
noun Rosemary.
noun The walrus: formerly imagined as a sea-monster which climbed cliffs to feed on dew.
satyrid:
noun Any of numerous nymphalid butterflies of the subfamily Satyrinae, formerly the family Satyridae, which includes the satyrs and wood nymphs.
scabland:
noun An elevated area of barren rocky land with little or no soil cover, often crossed by dry stream channels.
sciamachy:
noun A fighting with a shadow; a futile combat with an imaginary enemy. Also sciomachy.
serotinal:
adjective Pertaining to or occurring in late summer.
silva:
noun The trees or forests of a region.
noun A written work on the trees or forests of a region.
sinter:
noun A chemical sediment or crust, as of porous silica, deposited by a mineral spring.
sloom:
noun A gentle sleep; slumber.
spindrift:
noun Windblown sea spray.
noun Nautical, the spray of salt water blown along the surface of the sea in heavy winds.
spinneret:
noun Any of various tubular structures from which spiders and certain insect larvae, such as silkworms, secrete the silk threads from which they form webs or cocoons.
sprig:
noun A small shoot or twig of a plant.
starshine:
noun The shine or light of stars; starlight.
starstuff:
noun The material composition of stars; matter originated from stars; starmatter.
strewnfield:
noun An area on the surface of the earth, usually having an elongated oval shape, containing rocky fragments which detached from a disintegrating meteor as it streaked through the portion of earth’s atmosphere above the area.
sudd:
noun A floating mass of vegetation that obstructs navigation in tropical rivers, found chiefly in upper portions of the Nile River.
sunburst:
noun A sudden burst of sunlight, as through broken clouds.
swidden:
noun An area cleared for temporary cultivation by cutting and burning the vegetation.
sylphid:
noun A young or diminutive sylph.
adjective Relating to or resembling a sylph.
tawny:
noun A light brown to brownish orange.
therianthropic:
adjective Having both human and animal forms
tinctumutation:
noun The change of color which is exhibited by certain animals, such as the chameleon, anoli, and many cephalopods.
tor:
noun A high rock or pile of rocks on the top of a hill.
noun A Middle English form of tower.
tourbillion:
noun A whirlwind.
noun A vortex, as of a whirlwind or whirlpool.
transpontine:
adjective Situated on the other side of a bridge.
undercliff:
noun The name given along parts of the west of England, as near Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire, England, to a strip of very broken ground formed by the combined action of rain and sea on a mass of strata of varying lithological character.
vespertine:
adjective Of, relating to, or occurring in the evening.
vinette:
noun A sprig or branch.
vivific:
adjective rare Giving life; reviving; enlivening.
wanderstar:
noun A wandering star or other similar heavenly body; a comet; meteor; planet.
waterweed:
noun Any of various submersed aquatic plants, especially of the genera Elodea and Egeria.
noun Any wild aquatic plant without special use or beauty.
wildling:
noun A wild, i.e. not cultivated, plant
noun A wild animal
withe:
noun A tough supple twig, especially of willow, used for binding things together; a withy.
wood-note:
noun A wild or natural musical tone, like that of a forest-bird, as the wood-lark, wood-thrush, or nightingale.
yestreen:
noun Yesterday evening.
zeitgeber:
noun An external stimulus or cue, such as daylight or a regularly repeated occurrence, that serves to regulate an organism’s biological clock.
