familiar spirit
1
9.9
- noun
- /fəˈmɪljər ˈspɪrɪt/
- Literature
:
espíritu familiar
- Many believed that a familiar spirit could take the form of a cat or dog and provide guidance to its owner.
Examples
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"Now, let's talk about how you'll know when a familiar spirit has been drawn to you.
Fiction book (1994) -
Here are all your familiar spirits... your incubi and succubi.
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Your friend Mary Warren... has given us a deposition stating... that she never saw familiar spirits... and was never attacked... by any manifest of the devil.
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In medieval tales, a witch often has a familiar spirit that assists her in casting spells.
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Folklore suggests that a wizard's familiar spirit serves as both a companion and a source of magical power.
Synonyms
2
9.9
An animal spirit that helps a witch or wizard
1
7.0
An animal believed to show a person's character or guide them
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from the constituents: 'familiar' (a witch's companion spirit) combined with 'spirit' (an incorporeal being) yields a supernatural assistant. Although 'familiar' as a noun is somewhat specialized, if a learner knows both constituent senses the compound meaning is predictable and cross-linguistically paralleled, so comprehension is transparent.
Etymology
Familiar spirit comes from old stories where a witch or wizard kept a small animal, like a black cat or toad, that people thought was a spirit helping them and called a familiar. So the phrase means a supernatural 'assistant' or 'companion'.