and nosferatu appears weak. In some versions of the "nosophoros" etymology, an intermediate form *nesufur-atu, or sometimes *nosufur-atu is presented but both the original source for this and the justification for it are unclear. This form is often indicated to be Slavonic or Slavic. It is likely that either Old Church Slavonic or the protolanguage Proto-Slavic is intended. As with νοσοφόρος, this supposed Slavonic word does not appear to be attested in primary sources, which severely undermines the credibility of the argument. Another common etymology suggests that the word meant "not breathing", which appears to be attempting to read a derivative of the Latin verb spirare ("to breathe") as a second morpheme in nosferatu. Skal notes that this is "without basis in lexicography", viewing all these etymologies (including the widely repeated nosophoros etymology) with skepticism. A final possibility is that the form given by Gerard and the German folklorists is a well-known Romanian term without the benefit of normalized spelling, or possibly a misinterpretation of the sounds of the word due to Gerard's limited familiarity with the language, or possibly a dialectal variant of the word. The standardization of Romanian was rather incomplete in the 19th century, as can be seen in Dictionariulu Limbei Romane of 1871, which in a highly Latinized orthography defines incubu ("incubus") as "unu spiritu necuratu" compared to the modern standard "un spirit necurat". Three candidate words that have been put forth are necurat ("unclean", usually associated with the occult, compare a avea un spirit necurat, to have an evil spirit, be possessed), nesuferit, and nefârtat ("enemy", lit. "unbrothered"). The nominative masculine definite form of a Romanian noun in the declension to which these words belong takes the ending "-ul" or even the shortened "u", as in Romanian "l" is usually lost in the process of speaking, so the definite forms nefârtatu, necuratu and nesuferitu are commonly encountered. References Citations General bibliography (As a native Romanian, Dr. Buican's opinion that nosferatu is a mishearing of necuratu carries particular weight.) ("Hungarian Ethnographic Lexicon") (Skal reprints a large quotation of the relevant Wlislocki material) (The information relating to the "Nosferatu" from the article written by Mrs. Gerard in 1885 is reprinted on pp. 21–22). Further reading Peter M. Kreuter, Vampirglaube in Südosteuropa. Berlin, 2001. Nosferatu Romanian words and phrases Undead