Other forms: banshees
A banshee is a wailing spirit of Irish folklore whose cry foretells a death. Wail like a banshee, the banshee's cry, heard a banshee.
In the tradition she attaches to particular families and is heard rather than seen. Scream like a banshee is the fixed phrase and is used of children, sirens and wind. Note the pronunciation, BAN-shee; and that the Scottish equivalent is the bean-nighe, the washerwoman at the ford, who is washing the clothes of somebody about to die.
1nounbansheeA wailing spirit whose cry foretells a death.
“The banshee in that story attaches to one family and no other.”
banshee is a folklore spirit.
Irish bean sí means woman of the fairy mound — bean, a woman, plus sí, the otherworld hill. The word entered English in the seventeenth century and is one of a small number of Irish words to become fully English.
Old Irish
ben síde
Irish
bean sí
English, today
banshee
Irish bean sí, from Old Irish ben síde literally “woman of the fairy mound”. The term banshee entered English in 1771.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA