Nosferatu

See also: nosferatu

English

Etymology

Possibly from a Romanian word for vampire. The term achieved popular currency through Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula and F. W. Murnau's 1922 German film Nosferatu. See also: Wikipedia's article on the etymology of the word (and the references there).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌnɒsfəˈɹɑːtuː/

Noun

Nosferatu (plural Nosferatu)

1. A vampire.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1993, page 192:

     "Friend Arthur, if you had met that kiss [...] you would in time, when you had died, have become nosferatu, as they call it in Eastern Europe, and would all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have filled us with horror."

   • 2018 November, Kevin Jackson, “Something to Sink Your Teeth Into”, in Literary Review:

     Those of us who have dabbled much in the lore of the nosferatu tend to think of them as imaginative creations of the German and English Romantics, and not without reason.

   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 26:

     While it may have been capable of flight, it almost certainly spent its time on Hateg crawling about on its wrists, with its great leathery wings folded over its body like a shroud. A gigantic kind of Nosferatu comes to mind.

Derived terms

• Nosferatu spider

Anagrams

• furostane