ὕδρος

Forms

ῠ̔́δρος (húdros) m (genitive ῠ̔́δρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *udrós (“water animal”), from the root *wed- (“water”) that also gives ὕδωρ (hū́dōr).^[1][2] It is the old Indo-European name of a water animal, especially the otter.^[2]

Cognate with Sanskrit उद्र (udrá) and Avestan udra, names of the otter, Old High German ottar, Lithuanian ū́dra and the English word otter; Latin lutra has an extra l- from popular association.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Homer's Iliad, meaning a water snake.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Greek the water animal became a snake: in Herodotus and Aristotle the word names the water snake, Coluber natrix, while the feminine ὕδρα (húdrā) is used above all of the monstrous Hydra of Lerna.^[5][2] Hipponax already uses ὕδρος for that monster.^[6] Callimachus compares something white to the belly of a water snake.^[5]

Astronomers used ὕδρος, like ὕδρα, for the constellation Hydra, from Eudoxus on.^[5][2] Artemidorus applies it to a small water creature, which the dream books equate with a spider or a lizard.^[5][1] Latin borrowed the word as Latin hydrus.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of a water snake.^[4][5]
• 6th century BC – Hipponax uses it for the monstrous serpent of Lerna.^[6][8]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus mentions water snakes.^[5][9][8]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the water snake in his zoological works.^[5][9][8]
• 4th century BC – Eudoxus, quoted by Hipparchus, names the constellation Hydra with it.^[5][2][8]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus speaks of something “white as a water snake's belly”.^[5][8]
• 2nd century AD – Artemidorus uses it for a small water creature.^[5][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A water snake (Coluber natrix).^[5][6][4]
2. The monstrous serpent of Lerna, the Hydra.^[6]
3. A small water creature, said to be the same as a kind of spider or lizard.^[5][1]
4. (astronomy) The constellation Hydra.^[5][2]

Related words

• ὕδρα (húdrā)
• ὕδωρ (hū́dōr)
• ἔνυδρις (énudris)
• Latin hydrus
• Latin lutra
• English otter

Usage notes

Hesychius glosses the word simply as “snake”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
4. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)