Word for Wednesday: Vampire

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It’s ten days until Halloween and our October Word for Wednesday theme is all things spooky and scary. Have you had a chance to try out our Spooky Spelling game? Click here for five spooky spelling lists to play the game with. 

So far this month we’ve looked at the words ghost and werewolf. Today’s scary word is vampire! 

From Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Twilight, there’s no doubt that the vampiric figure is popular when it comes to scary stories. The word is used to describe a corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living.  Folk tales about vampires exist all over the world and details from how to create a vampire to how to kill one are different from story to story. In European lore, it is common for vampires to have sharp fangs and gaunt features. In some stories, they sleep in coffins and wear the shrouds they were buried in. 

The word dates to 1734 and entered English via either the French ‘vampire’ or the German ‘Vampir’, both of which come from the Hungarian ‘vampir’. The Hungarian comes from the Old Church Slavonic ‘opiri’. In 1774, the word was given by French biologist Buffon to a species of blood-sucking bat. 
 


21 Oct 2020
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"Thank goodness for Spellzone during this remote learning phase. The site is easy for students to navigate independently and they're really enjoying the activities and spelling games. You get an awful lot for your money with Spellzone. Really reassuring is the very prompt response with helpdesk queries. I've very rarely needed the helpdesk, but when I have, the issue has been addressed and sorted within a very short time."

Sarah Taggart, Oasis Academy Lord's Hill