Elle-people

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A type of elf of Scandinavian folklore. plural, plural-only

    "It is also necessary to watch cattle so that they may not graze in any place where the Elle-people have been. If any animal goes to a place where the Elle-people have spit or done what is worse, it is attacked by some grievous disease, which can only be cured by giving it a handful of St. John's wort, which was pulled at twelve o'clock on St. John's night."

Example

More examples

"It is also necessary to watch cattle so that they may not graze in any place where the Elle-people have been. If any animal goes to a place where the Elle-people have spit or done what is worse, it is attacked by some grievous disease, which can only be cured by giving it a handful of St. John's wort, which was pulled at twelve o'clock on St. John's night."

Etymology

Calque of Danish ellefolk.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.