vampire [M18th] The best-known vampire is Count Dracula in Dracula by Bram Stoker, but these blood-sucking corpses of folklore had caught the public imagination long before the book was published in 1897. They had appeared in English since the mid 18th century, and in 1819 The Vampyre by John William Polidori had been a huge popular success. The word is from Hungarian vampir, perhaps from Turkish uber ‘witch’. The 20th-century film industry gave vampires and vampirism [M18th] a great publicity boost, as well as introducing the *vamp or vampish heroine. The vampire bat got its name in the late 18th century.