pisky

English

Noun

pisky (plural piskies)

1. (West Country) Alternative form of pixie (“supernatural being”)
   • 1850, Father Poodles, The Piskies, W. Harrison Ainsworth (editor), The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, Volume 88, Chapman & Hall, page 45,

     "Get out!" said the fat pisky, giving him a kick with his two-inch leg. "Don't you know, you miserable thin thing that a dumbledorry knocked over the other night, that pisky girls are five times as troublesome as mortal ones? and they are bad enough in all conscience, are they not, Master Page, eh?"

   • 1887, M. A. Courtney, Cornish Folk-Lore, The Folk-Lore Journal, Volume V: January—December 1887, The Folklore Society, page 179,

     The small people go about in parties, but pisky in his habits, at least in West Cornwall, is a solitary little being.

   • 1898, Charles Lee, “Wisht Wood”, in A. T. Quiller-Couch, editor, The Cornish Magazine, volume 1, page 257:

     So saying, he stepped to the door and took the path across the meadow, the pisky trotting before him, the folk of the farm following after.

Anagrams

• kipsy, spiky