So, is “Sith” something George Lucas made up for the Star Wars films?
Yes and no. George Lucas created one of the most recognizable villains in movie history – Darth Vader. Darth Vader was a member of an evil empire and was refered to as a “Dark Lord of the Sith” in the script and novel from the first Star Wars movie – however, this reference never made it to the 1977 film. The word “sith” was not officially used on film to describe Vader and his ilk until The Phantom Menace which was released in 1999. Interestingly, Lucas was not the first to use the word in fiction or in the Sci-Fi genre: it was also the name of a type of giant insect in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom novels (1912-1943) and – most interestingly – the term “Sith-Lord” was used to describe a villain named Rruothk’ar in an issue of the comicbook Star-Lord, published by Marvel Comics in 1976.
