The Ojibwe wendigo, Hebrew lilith, and Latin strix all descend from names for owls or screech owls. All of them gained second connotations as either ogres, succubi or witches.
In English, screech owls were historically referred to as the lich-owl because they were seen as omens of death (the word lich meaning corpse).
The stirge in the Monster Manual appears to be based on the myth of the strix, according to statements from Gygax himself.
The movie Nosferatu claimed that the word nosferatu meant "bird of death," but this appears to have no basis in the word's Romanian etymology. However, the Romanian word strigoi meaning "ghost; vampire" descends from the Latin strix mentioned above. Old bestiaries claim that nocturnal birds cannot stand the sight of the sun, echoing Nosferatu's photosensitive nature.
Links
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Algonquian/wi·nteko·wa
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/לילית#Hebrew
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilu_(mythology)
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/strix
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americana_(1920)/Lich_Owl
- http://rpg.crg4.com/originsR.html#stirge
- http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast245.htm
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nosferatu
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/strigoi
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