Underworld Tales Magazine origin of vampires

The Origin of the Word "Vampire"

The word vampire also spelled, "vampir," or "vampyre," has obscure origins, but scholars generally agree that it can be traced to the Slavic languages. But the debate over this will continue, since there are many numerous theories. The word may have come from the Lithuanian wempti, which literally means "to drink", or from the root pi, which has a similar meaning with the prefix va or av. Other scholars would scoff at this, however, and claim that the word had Turkish roots, such as the word, uber or "witch," or the Serbo-Croatian pirati "to blow". After all, the word vampircan be found in the Serbo-Croatian language and is upyr in Russian, upior in Polish, and upir in Byelorussian.

Some scholars insist that upir is older than vampir, an eastern Slavic name that spread westward into the Balkans. Scholars who hold this viewpoint claim that the word was then adopted by the southern Slavs and widely spread.

No one knows when the word vampire or vampyre was first used in the English language, but it appeared in two 1732 publications.

-The End-

Do you have some comments or some personal experiences to add about this article? If so, write to Underworld Tales and share it with others. We will not use your real name.