Supernatural is a dangerous and difficult word in any of its senses, looser or stricter. But to fairies it can hardly be applied, unless super is taken merely as a superlative prefix. For it is man who is, in contrast to fairies, supernatural; whereas they are natural, far more natural than he. Such is their doom.

Tree and leaf ; Smith of Wootton Major ; The homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's son (ed. 1975)