dryad

English

Etymology

From Old French driade (“wood nymph”), from Latin Dryas, Dryadis, from Ancient Greek Δρυάς (Druás, “dryad”), from δρῦς (drûs, “oak”), from Proto-Indo-European *derew(o)- (“tree, wood”); cf. Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɹaɪəd/, /ˈdɹaɪˌæd/

• Audio (US); /dɹaɪæd/:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪəd, -aɪæd

Noun

dryad (plural dryads)

1. (Greek mythology) A female tree spirit.

   Hyponyms: Daphne, hamadryad

   Coordinate term: Meliai

   • 1914, Hans Christian Andersen, “The Dryad”, in William Alexander Craigie, transl., Fairy tales and other stories:

     There it had stood for years, close beside a mighty oak, under which sat often the kindly old priest, who told stories to the listening children. The young chestnut tree listened with them: the Dryad inside it, who was still a child, could remember the time when the tree was so small that it only reached a little higher than the ferns and long blades of grass.

2. mountain avens, dryas

Derived terms

• dryadic
• yellow dryad

Translations

female tree spirit

Afrikaans: driade f Belarusian: дрыяда f (dryjada) Bulgarian: дриада f (driada) Catalan: dríada f Chinese: Mandarin: 樹精 / 树精 (shùjīng) Czech: dryáda (cs) f Dutch: dryade (nl) sg or f Esperanto: driado Finnish: dryadi French: dryade (fr) f German: Dryade (de) f Greek: δρυάς f (dryás) Ancient Greek: Δρυάς f (Druás) Hungarian: driád (hu) Ido: driado (io) Italian: driade (it) f Japanese: ドリュアス (doryuasu) Latvian: driāda f Lithuanian: driadė f Norwegian: dryade f Persian: دریاد Polish: driada f Portuguese: dríade (pt) f, dríada f Russian: дриа́да (ru) f (driáda) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: дријада f Roman: drijada f Slovak: dryáda f Spanish: dríade (es) f, dríada (es) f, dría f Swedish: dryad (sv) Ukrainian: дріада f (driada)

Further reading

• dryad on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dardy