hyena

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hiene, also hyane and hiena,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French hiene, also hyene (modern French hyène),^[4][3][5][6] and directly borrowed from Latin hyaena;^[3][7] the Middle English Dictionary names Medieval Latin hiēna as a source beside the French.^[2] The modern spelling follows the Latin.^[4] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ὕαινα (húaina, “hyena”),^[4][5][8][9] apparently a feminine formation from ὗς (hûs, “pig”), with the ending of λέαινα (léaina, “lioness”);^[4][8][7] the Greek word for pig is from the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *su- (“pig”), the source of sow.^[5][10][1] The animal was probably named for its bristly back or mane, thought to resemble a hog's bristles.^{[3][11][8][5]} The English word displaced the native Old English nihtgenġe (“night-walker”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animal, as hyane: 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, which calls it the fiercest beast, one that digs up the bodies of the dead and eats them.^[4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Medieval writers knew the hyena from books: Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1398) describes a cruel beast like the wolf in its greed, found in great numbers in Africa.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) still defined it as an animal like a wolf, said in fables to imitate human voices, and quoted Shakespeare's "I will laugh like a hyen".^[12] Topsell (1607) also gave the name to a fabled stone taken from the hyena's eye, a use the OED follows to 1855.^[4][7] From 1671, in Milton's Samson Agonistes, a cruel, treacherous or greedy person could be called a hyena.^[4][5] In Australia the name was given to the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger from 1832, now rarely.^[4][7][10]

Timeline

• 1340 – the animal, as hyane, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt.^[4][3][2]
• before 1398 – the form hiena, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[3][2]
• 1607 – a fabled stone said to come from the hyena's eye (obsolete after 1855).^[4]
• 1671 – a cruel, treacherous or greedy person, in Milton's Samson Agonistes.^[4][5]
• 1832 – in Australia, the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several doglike carnivorous mammals of Africa and southwestern Asia (family Hyaenidae), with strong jaws, a rough coat and hind legs shorter than the forelegs, that feed largely on carrion; the spotted or laughing hyena, the striped hyena and the brown hyena: At dusk a pair of hyenas circled the carcass.^[13][10][7]
2. A cruel, treacherous or greedy person.^[4][7]
3. (Australia, now rare) The thylacine.^[7][10][4]
4. (obsolete, 1607–1855) A stone fabled to be taken from a hyena's eye.^[4][7]

Word family

• hyenic
• hyenoid

Related words

• sow

Usage notes

The spelling hyaena is also used, chiefly in British English and in zoological names.^[13][10][7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins