The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vampirism \Vam"pir*ism\, n. [Cf. F. vampirisme.]
Belief in the existence of vampires.
The actions of a vampire; the practice of bloodsucking.
Fig.: The practice of extortion.
--Carlyle.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 the state of being a vampire, or the practices associated with vampires, in particular blood-drinking and the draining of a victim's life-force. 2 (context figuratively English) extortion
Usage examples of "vampirism".
The morbid listening of his mother in the night brought out the fact that he made frequent sallies abroad under cover of darkness, and most of the more academic alienists unite at present in charging him with the revolting cases of vampirism which the press so sensationally reported about this time, but which have not yet been definitely traced to any known perpetrator.
And I think that it was his mutant vampirism that made him insane, not natural goblin sociopathy, which oddly enough has limits.
By popular superstition, every officeholder, appointive or elective, is suspected of living by a process midway between cannibalism and vampirism, and classed with robbing the dead.
Since longevity is invariably a result of vampirism, barring accidental death or fatal diseases the lifespan of the victim, then a vampire in his own right, might easily extend to many hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years.
Personally, Char would rather think that vampirism was some sort of mutation or blood disease that brought about physical changes and enhanced the energy manipulation that was better known as magic.
Whedier it could be successfully removed from die flayed human skin substitute and impplanted in die veins of someone who had suffered a loss from injury or vampirism.
Vampirism was treated like rabies, the only difference being that if a man was ever vampirized they didn't attempt a cure.