SVENGALI


Meaning of SVENGALI in English

[ svɛn'gα:li ]

■ noun a person who exercises a controlling influence on another, especially for a sinister purpose.

Origin

~ , a musician in George du Maurier's novel Trilby (1894) who controls Trilby's stage singing hypnotically.

Concise Oxford English vocab.      Сжатый оксфордский словарь английского языка.