dryad

English

Evelyn De Morgan, The Dryad, 1884–1885

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/, /ˈdɹaɪæd/

• Audio (General American):

  (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

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
• Swedish: dryad (sv)
• Ukrainian: дріада f (driada)

Further reading

• dryad on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dardy