soucouyant
/suːkuːˈjɑ̃/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
1
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "1986, Kenneth Ramchand, “Wayne Vincent Brown”, in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 90, We can notice, for example, that “Vampire” combines the folkloric soucouyant (blood-sucking old woman in the shape of a ball of fire), a science fiction creature (“clammy, from its bed of hairs / And thirsty” [p. 24]), the moon again (Brown’s poems are obsessed by the moon); …"
- "2002, David E. Jones, Evil in Our Midst: A Chilling Glimpse of the World's Most Feared and Frightening Demons, Square One Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 133, The Soucouyant is an evil fire, a kind of witch, that robes itself entirely in the skin of an old woman to hide its true identity from neighbors."
- "“The soucouyant is an old woman that sheds her skin,” Beth said. “She flies out of her house and looks for human blood. When she finds it, she changes into an animal of some kind and sucks the blood away.”"
Etymology
From West Indies Creole.