elf-shot

English

Adjective

elf-shot (not comparable)

  1. (Anglo-Saxon and British mythology and folklore) Maliciously wounded or sickened as a result of having been shot by an elf.
    • 1897 August 5, The Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, Qld, page 4, column 5:
      Without visible mark or sign she was elf-shot; and the proof of this appeared from her going off her milk, dwining away, and dying before her calves could be counted on the hooves of one foot.
    • 1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, page 16:
      The malicious elves did not confine their attacks to human beings; references to elf-shot cattle are numerous.
    • 1976, Ulster Folklife:
      Frequently this practitioner would keep a stock of elf-shot from which one would be produced by sleight of hand from the ailing animal's flank as evidence that it had indeed been elf-shot.
  2. Of a missile, fired by an elf.
    • 1789, William Collins, An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland, London: J. Bell, page 11:
      There, ev'ry herd, by sad experience, knows
      How, wing'd with Fate, their elf-shot arrows fly,
      When the sick ewe her summer food foregoes,
      Or, stretch'd on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie.
    • 2018, Lauren B. Davis, Against A Darkening Sky‎[1], Canelo + ORM:
      Ley whatever elf-shot darts, whatever flying venoms, be concentrated among those already ill.
    • 2021, Marie Nelson, Structures of Opposition in Old English Poems, Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, page 52:
      Following Singer, Bonser relates the word gescot (shot) to the elf-shot arrows believed to cause illness in both animals and humans.

Noun

elf-shot (countable and uncountable, plural elf-shots)

  1. An elf arrow; elf arrows.
    • 1906 August 7, The Clarence River Advocate, NSW, page 4, column 5:
      In Scotland the flint arrow heads are denominated ‘elf shots,’ from a belief among the people that they are of rib human formation, but the shot with which the elves or fairies assail cattle, and there are many superstitions in connection with them.
    • 1976, Ulster Folklife:
      Frequently this practitioner would keep a stock of elf-shot from which one would be produced by sleight of hand from the ailing animal's flank as evidence that it had indeed been elf-shot.
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