harpy

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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woodcut of a harpy (1)
Circus aeruginosus (4)

Etymology

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Ultimately from Middle French harpie, from Latin harpyia, from Ancient Greek Ἅρπυια (Hárpuia, literally snatcher), from ἁρπάζω (harpázō, I snatch, seize). Compare rapacious. Middle English had arpie.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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harpy (plural harpies)

  1. (mythology) A mythological creature generally depicted as a bird-of-prey with the head of a maiden, a face pale with hunger and long claws on her hands personifying the destructive power of storm winds.
  2. (derogatory) A shrewish woman.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:shrew
    • 1927, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Outlaw of Torn[1], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:
      But her most subtle wiles proved ineffectual in ridding her, even for a moment, of her harpy jailer []
    • 2011 March 17, Toby Young, “Mumsnet isn't representative of the 'squeezed middle'. It's just a bunch of Guardian-reading, laptop-wielding harpies”, in The Telegraph[2], archived from the original on 2011-03-20:
      [] Ed Miliband has yet to come up with a definition of “the squeezed middle” that excludes anyone, but you can bet your bottom dollar he has these laptop-wielding harpies in mind.
  3. One who is rapacious or ravenous; an extortioner.
    • c. 1772, Oliver Goldsmith, letter to Mrs. Bunbury
      The harpies about me all pocket the pool.
  4. The European moor buzzard or marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus).
  5. A large and powerful double-crested, short-winged American eagle (Harpia harpyja).

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Turkmen

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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harpy

  1. definite accusative of harp