Origin and history of lemur

female demon, late 14c., from Latin lamia "witch, sorceress, vampire," from Greek lamia "female vampire, man-eating monster." According to Beekes this is a derivative of lamyros "voracious, avaricious, eager," which is "probably Pre-Greek" and related to laphyssein "to swallow."

Klein has it as literally "swallower; lecher" (another derivative of lamyros was lamyria "voluptuousness, coquetry") and derives it from laimos "throat, gullet" (source of larynx); Beekes writes that "Perhaps [laimos] is also related."

Beekes finds no basis for a comparison with Latin lemures "spirits of the dead" (see lemur).

In Gr. and Rom. myth., an enticing witch, who charmed children and youths for the purpose of feeding on their blood and flesh, like the later vampire; a female demon; hence, in general, a destroying witch. [Century Dictionary, 1895]

Used in early translations of the Bible for screech owls and sea monsters. Also used in Greek as "large shark" (Aristotle, etc.). In Middle English sometimes, perhaps confusing the two Greek senses, "mermaid":

Also kynde erreþ in som beestes wondirliche j-schape, as it fareþ in a beest þat hatte lamia, þat haþ an heed as a mayde & body as a grym fissche[;] whan þat best lamya may fynde ony man, first a flatereþ wiþ hym with a wommannes face and makeþ hym ligge by here while he may dure, & whanne he may noferþere suffice to here lecherye þanne he rendeþ hym and sleþ and eteþ hym. [John of Trevisa, translation (late 14c.) of Bartholomew Glanville's "De proprietatibus rerum"]

1864, name given by English zoologist Philip L. Sclater (1829-1913) to an ancient continent or land bridge, now sunk in the Indian Ocean, connecting Africa, Madagascar, India, and Southeast Asia, which he hypothesized to explain the geographical distribution of mammals around it, especially the lemur, hence the name (with -ia). The premise was considered scientifically untenable by 1880 and the phenomena now are accounted for otherwise, but Lemuria in some ways by chance anticipated Gondwanaland (1896) in the continental drift model.

Earlier Lemuria was the name of the Roman feast of the Lemures, evil spirits of the dead in Roman mythology. The head of each household ritually exorcised them every 9th, 11th, and 13th of May. Related: Lemurian