09 What is the translation of "nosferatu" into English?
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This article is from the Vampires FAQ, by BJ Kuehl bj@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu with numerous contributions by others.
09 What is the translation of "nosferatu" into English?
Bram Stoker used the word "nosferatu" in his novel _Dracula_. Most
people think it is a Romanian word for "vampire" or "undead." Actually,
no such word exists in any Romanian dictionary. It first appears in
print in an article entitled "Transylvanian Superstitions" [Emily
Gerard in _The Nineteenth Century_, July 1885, pp 128-144]. Gerard had
spent some time in Transylvania and may have heard a word that sounded
to her like "nosferatu." It may be a corrupted form of "nesuferit" or
the Greek "Nosophoros," both of which translate as "plague-bearer."
The word "nosferatu" was later incorporated by Gerard into her book
_The Land Beyond the Forest_ (1888). We are not sure if Stoker ever
consulted this book; it is not on his own list of sources. But the
article is. In fact, Stoker borrowed many items from this article,
including the blue flames and St. George's Eve. To quote from Gerard's
book, "More decidedly evil is the nosferatu, or vampire, in which
every Roumanian peasant believes as he does in heaven or hell."
[written in part by Elizabeth Miller]
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