Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BANSHEE, n. Also benshi(e), banshi(e). A female spirit, prob. of a dead ancestress, who maintained an association with her own family and gave warning, gen. by wailing, when death or disaster was at hand. Now St. Eng. but orig. Scots-Irish. [′bɑnʃi]Highl. 1771 T. Pennant Tour 1769 160:
The death of people is supposed to be foretold by the cries and shrieks of Benshi, or the Fairies wife, uttered along the very path where the funeral is to pass. Sc. 1810 Scott Lady of the Lake iii. vii.:
The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream. Highl. 1900 J. G. Campbell Superstition 55:
The Banshi is, without doubt, the original of the Queen of Elfland, mentioned in the ballads of the South of Scotland. Kcb. 1901 A. Trotter East Gall. Sk. 370:
Brownie, fairy, water-kelpie, benshie. Sc. 1948 L. Spence Fairy Tradition 47:
The Scottish evidence regarding the banshee proper, or so-called, is somewhat scanty, and rather obviously ancillary to the much richer and fuller Irish tradition.

[Gael. ban-sìth, Ir. bean-sídhe, ‘fairy woman’, id.]