The New International Encyclopædia/Cinderella

CIN′DEREL′LA (from cinder, with dim. termination -ella; cf. Fr. Cendrillon, and Ger.

Aschenbrödel, or Aschenputtel, of similar meaning). An old fairy tale of Oriental origin. It existed in Egypt in a legend of Rhodopis and Psammetichus. It appears in German lore in the sixteenth century, and is among the fairy-tales of Grimm. Perrault and Madame d'Aunoy popularized it for seventeenth-century France. It deals with the marriage of a household drudge to a prince who discovers her by finding her marvelously small glass slipper, which excites his curiosity as to the owner, and which no Court lady is able to wear. The ‘glass’ slipper is an error, arising from the confusion of verre, glass, with the old vair, fur.