English
spiriter
From spirit + -er.
Formed from spirit + -er
Latin spīrō ‘to breathe’
Latin spīritus ‘breath’
Old French espirit
Middle English spirit ‘life’
English spirit
Today it means
noun One who spirits away another, particularly one who steals children to be sold into forced labour in the New World.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “spiriter”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / spiriter