The Etymology of Ghoul
The ghoul is one of Arabic mythology's most distinctive exports. In pre-Islamic Arabian folklore, the 'ghūl' was a shapeshifting desert demon — often female — that lurked in burial grounds and desolate wastes, luring travellers by assuming attractive forms before devouring them. The creature fed on the recently dead, haunting graveyards and battlefields. Antoine Galland's French translation of the Arabian Nights (1704–1717) introduced the ghūl to European readers as 'goule,' and English adopted it as 'ghoul' by 1786. The figurative use — describing a person morbidly interested in death and disaster — developed in the 19th century. Unlike many folklore creatures that became tamer in translation, the ghoul retained its unsettling core: a thing that feeds on the dead.