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Chambers (1908)

Vampire

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This edition’s origin note

[Fr.,—Servian vampir; the word is common in the Slavonic tongues.]

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The complete extracted entry

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Vampire, vam′pīr, n. in eastern Europe, an accursed body which cannot rest in the kindly earth, but nightly leaves its grave to suck the blood of sleeping men: an extortioner.—n. Vam′pire-bat, the name of several species of bats all supposed to suck blood—the real blood-suckers only in Central and South America, attacking cattle, horses, and sometimes human beings asleep.—adj. Vampir′ic.—n. Vam′pirism, the actions of a vampire or the practice of blood-sucking: extortion. [Fr.,—Servian vampir; the word is common in the Slavonic tongues.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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