ouphe means A small, often mischievous sprite; a fairy; a goblin; an elf. Lexicurio rates it Distinctive — a strength score of 57 out of 100.
Why this word is great
OUPHE — [Noun] A small, often mischievous sprite; a fairy or goblin. Its name is a variant of 'aufe' or 'oaf', from the earlier sense meaning 'elf child' or 'changeling'. Unlike an "elf," which conjures a being of noble, skilled lore, or a "goblin," which implies a palpably malevolent and ugly troublemaker, an ouphe is a creature of rustic whimsy and puckish, half-obsolete mischief. It is the culprit behind a single, inexplicably sour berry in a pail of fruit, the author of the knot that appears in a carefully coiled rope overnight, and the faint, mocking laughter that rides just ahead of the wind through the barley—a folkloric sigh for the minor, inexplicable troubles that remind us the world was once intimately and capriciously alive.
noun
- A small, often mischievous sprite; a fairy; a goblin; an elf.“Strew good luck, ouphes, on every ſacred room,
That it may ſtand 'till the perpetual Doom,
In ſtate as wholſom, as in ſtate 'tis fit;
Worthy the owner, as the owner it.”