Elfin

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɛlfɪn/
• Rhymes: -É›lfɪn

From Middle English elven, from Old English elfen, ælfen ("nymph, spirit, fairy"), diminutive of elf, ælf ("elf"), equivalent to elf + -en. Cognate with Middle High German elbinne ("a fairy, nymph").

Full definition of elfin

Noun

1. An elf; an inhabitant of fairy-land.
2. A little urchin or child.

Partly from attributive use of Etymology 1, but reanalysed by Spenser as if equivalent to elf + -en.

Adjective

1. Relating to or resembling an elf, especially in its tiny size or features.
• 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody Chapter 1, Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with...on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.
• 2012, May 24, Nathan Rabin, Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3, He’s forced to travel back to 1969 to prevent an evil alien (a shockingly effective, nearly unrecognizable Jemaine Clement of Flight Of The Conchords, playing sort of a psychotic extraterrestrial-biker serial killer) from destroying the world by killing Brolin. Smith is aided in his quest by an elfin, time-jumping alien with psychic powers played by another Coen brothers veteran, A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg.

Synonyms

• elvish