a. and sb. Also 6–7 elphyne, -in, ? 8 Sc. elfan. [Obscurely f. ELF sb.; app. first used by Spenser, and perh. suggested to him by the phrase elvene land ‘land of elves’ (see ELVEN); the proper name Elphin in the Arthurian romances may possibly have influenced the form.]

1

  A.  adj.

2

  1.  Pertaining to elves; of elfish nature or origin.

3

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 42. Him litle answerd th’ angry Elfin knight. Ibid., I. x. 65. A Faery … her base Elfin brood there for thee left; Such, men do Chaungelings call.

4

1673.  Elphin Knight, i. in Child, Ballads, I. 15/1. The elphin knight sits on yon hill.

5

1742.  Collins, Ode, iv. 4. His loveliest Elfin queen has blest.

6

1792.  S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., I. 117. Heroes … Whose elfin prowess scaled the orchard-wall.

7

1808.  Scott, Marm., III. xxiv. The Elfin knight fell.

8

1820.  Keats, St. Agnes, xxxix. Hark! ’tis an elfin storm from faery land.

9

1828.  Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 145. Elfin bells when the Queen of Faery rides by moonlight.

10

  2.  transf. a. Diminutive, dwarfish. b. Fairylike, full of strange charm.

11

1796–7.  Coleridge, Poems (1862), 28. The elfin tribe … Released from school.

12

1873.  Dixon, Two Queens, III. XVI. ii. 191. From childhood she had been a bright and elfin creature.

13

  B.  sb. 1. = ELF; also attrib.

14

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., I. x. 60. And thou, faire ymp … accompted Elfins sonne.

15

1807.  Crabbe, Birth Flattery, 128. A wicked elphin, roved this land around.

16

1840.  Hood, Up the Rhine, 69. Elfins … swarm in their romantic mythology.

17

1864.  Skeat, trans. Uhland’s Poems, 307.

        Darling, join the elfin-dance
’Neath the stars’ and moonlight’s glance.

18

  † 2.  Sc. ? Elf-land.

19

1567–83.  Simpill Ballades, 210. Ane carling of the Quene of Phareis The ewill win geir to elphyne careis.

20

a. 1800.  Q. of Elfan’s Nourice, iii. in Child, Ballads, II. 359/1. Waken, Queen of Elfan, An hear your nourice moan.

21

a. 1802.  Young, Tamlane, vi. ibid. 508/1. The Queen o Elfin will gie a cry.

22

  3.  transf. A child.

23

1742.  Shenstone, School-mistress, 129, Wks. (1795), 267. In those elfins’ ears [she] would oft deplore The times.

24

1804.  J. Grahame, Sabbath (1839), 19/1. Then would he teach the elfins how to plait The rushy cap.

25

  Hence Elfindom, nonce-wd., the estate of the elves.

26

1886.  W. H. Gibson, in Harper’s Mag., May, 838. The traditional type of elfindom.

27