ban·shee also ban·shie 
(bănshē)
(bănshē)n.
A female spirit in Gaelic folklore believed to presage, by wailing, a death in a family.
[Irish Gaelic bean sídhe, woman of the fairies, banshee : bean, woman (from Old Irish ben; see gwen- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots) + sídhe, fairy (from Old Irish síde, genitive of síd, fairy mound; see sed- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots).]