Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Twilight series might be interested to know they are following a tradition that spans several centuries. The word vampire was first used in English in 1734, as a superstition that originated in the Balkans spread across Western Europe. An explosion of popularity would come in the 19th century, starting with John Polidori’s The Vampyre published in 1819. The novella was Polidori’s entry in the friendly competition we described in yesterday’s Word of the Day. As the century drew to a close, Bram Stoker created the definitive vampire. Dracula, published in 1897, is perhaps the most famous and enduring of all horror novels.
