Pixie - Etymology and Origin

Etymology and Origin

The origin of the name pixie is uncertain. Some have speculated that it comes from the Swedish dialectal pyske meaning wee little fairy. Others, however, have disputed this, given there is no plausible case for Nordic dialectical survivals in southwest Britiain, and claiming instead that due to the Cornish origin of the piskie that the term is more probably Celtic in origin, though no direct ancestor of the word is known, however the term Pobel Vean ('Little People') is often used to refer to them collectively. Very similar analogues exist in closely related Irish (Aos Si) and Breton (korrigan) culture, although their common names are unrelated, even within areas of language survival there is a very high degree of local variation of names. A West Penwith name for pixie is spriggan - this being the area of late survival of the Cornish language - here Spriggans are distinguished from pixies by their malevolent nature. Closely associated with tin mining in Cornwall are the subterranean ancestral knockers.

Pixie mythology is believed to pre-date Christian presence in Britain. In the Christian era they were sometimes said to be the souls of children who had died un-baptized. These children would change their appearance to pixies once their clothing was placed in clay funeral pots used in their earthly lives as toys. By 1869 some were suggesting that the name pixie was a racial remnant of Pictic tribes who used to paint and tattoo their skin blue, an attribute often given to pixies. This suggestion is still met in contemporary writing, but there is no proven connection and the etymological connection is doubtful. Some 19th-century researchers made more general claims about pixie origins, or have connected them with the Puck, (Cornish Bucca) a mythological creature sometimes described as a fairy; the name Puck is also of uncertain origin.

Until the advent of more modern fiction, pixie mythology was localized to Britain. Some have noted similarities to "northern fairies", Germanic and Scandinavian fae, but pixies are distinguished from them by the myths and stories of Devon and Cornwall.