Fairy

“The word ‘fairy’ is a very modern word as used in the sense of spirit. The original meaning of the word was magic, supernatural power, and the old English writers used it in this sense. . . . The word used to be spelled ‘faerie’; and the term ‘faerie land’ originally meant ‘land of magic.’ Much later the term was applied to a supernatural being or person, for which the real English word was El, or Elf.”
—Lafcadio Hearn, Life and Literature (1917)