ὕδρα

Forms

ῠ̔́δρᾱ (húdrā) f (genitive ῠ̔́δρᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *údrā,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *udréh₂, the feminine of *udrós, a derivative of the root *wed- (“water”).^[1] Beekes and Frisk take it to be an old Indo-European name for a water animal, above all the otter, literally “the one of the water”.^[2][3] The word belongs with ὕδωρ (hū́dōr, “water”) and ἔνυδρις (énudris, “otter”).^[2]

Cognate with Sanskrit उद्र (udrá, “a water animal”), Avestan udra- (“otter”), Old High German ottar (“otter”), Lithuanian ū́dra, Russian выдра (výdra) and the English word otter.^[2][1] The long /ū/ of the Baltic and Slavic forms is secondary, from Winter's law, and Latin lutra (“otter”) took its initial /l/ by folk etymology.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Hesiod's Theogony, of the Lernaean hydra, the many-headed water serpent.^[4][5] The masculine ὕδρος (húdros) “water snake” is older still, in the Iliad.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word meant a water serpent, but in practice it was the name of the Lernaean monster killed by Heracles, in Hesiod, Sophocles and Euripides.^[4][6][2] Because two heads grew back for each one cut off, “to cut the hydra” was a proverb for useless labour, used by Plato, and the hydra became the type of an enemy that cannot be beaten.^[4][6] Herodas has “more many-coloured than a hydra”, which the proverb collections explain as said of crafty people.^[4] From Hellenistic times ὕδρα and ὕδρος also named a constellation, already in Eudoxus as cited by Hipparchus.^[2][3][4]

Latin borrowed the word as hydra.^[7] In Modern Greek ύδρα (ýdra) is a learned word, the name of an aquatic invertebrate as well as of the monster.^[8][9] English hydra, from the late 14th century, came through Latin, and was used of “any multiplicity of evils”.^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad has the masculine ὕδρος (húdros) for a water snake.^[2]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony names the Lernaean hydra.^[4][5][11]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it of the Lernaean hydra.^[4][6][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato's Republic uses “cutting the hydra” for labour in vain.^[4][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Aratus uses it for the constellation.^[4][11]
• 3rd century BC – Herodas has the proverb “more many-coloured than a hydra”.^[4][11]
• Late 14th century – English borrows it as hydra.^[10]
• Modern Greek – The learned word Modern Greek ύδρα (ýdra) also names an aquatic invertebrate.^[9][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A water snake, especially the Lernaean hydra killed by Heracles.^[4][6]
2. (figurative) An opponent that cannot be overcome, as in the proverb “to cut the hydra”, of useless effort.^[4][6]
3. (astronomy) The constellation Hydra.^[4][2]

Related words

• ὕδρος (húdros)
• ὕδωρ (hū́dōr)
• ἔνυδρις (énudris)
• Latin hydra
• Latin lutra
• English hydra
• English otter

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge