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drow

Pronunciation: /dɹəʊ/

The English word “drow” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. “hidden people” (Faroese huldufólk, Norwegian huldrefolk), subterraneans (Norwegian underjordiske, Swedish underjordiska, Gutnish di sma undar jordi), fairies, “troll-folk”, and thereof (Swedish oknytt)
  2. ghost; cognate to Scandinavian folklore of gnomes, wights, trolls, etc, being supernatural ghosts
  3. “The devil”, cognate to Scanian dråe (“devil”).
  4. A member of a fictional race of dark elves in various fantasy settings, such as Dungeons & Dragons.
  5. A fictional constructed language spoken by the Drow.

Etymology

From Shetlandic and Orcadian Scots drow, from Norn *drou, *drau (compare 18th c. Norwegian drau, modern drov, drauv), alternatively *drog, from Old Norse draugr (“malevolent revenant”); along the variation trow, intermixed with Norn troll, from Old Norse trǫll (“troll, malevolent supernatural being”), a partial synonym to draugr. L-vocalisation occurred in the early 15th century in Middle Scots,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.