harpy

English

woodcut of a harpy (1)

Harpia harpyja (4)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹpi/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːpi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)pi
• Hyphenation: har‧py

Noun

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.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:

     Both table and provisions vanish'd quite,
     With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard.

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 20 March 2011:

     […] 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. Any of a number of eagle-like birds of prey of the subfamily Harpiinae, especially the species Harpia harpyja.
5. The European moor buzzard or marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus).

Derived terms

• harpy bat
• harpy eagle
• harpy fly
• harpyish
• harpylike

Translations

fabulous winged monster with the face of a woman

• Asturian: harpía f
• Bulgarian: ха́рпия f (hárpija)
• Catalan: harpia (ca) f
• Czech: harpyje f
• Danish: harpy c
• Dutch: harpij (nl) f
• Esperanto: harpio
• Finnish: harpyija (fi)
• French: harpie (fr) f
• Galician: harpía (gl) f
• German: Harpyie (de) f
• Greek: άρπυια (el) f (árpyia)

  Ancient Greek: ἅρπυια f (hárpuia)

• Hebrew: הַרְפִּיָּה f (hárpiya)
• Hungarian: hárpia (hu)
• Irish: airp f
• Italian: arpia (it)
• Japanese: ハルピュイア
• Korean: 하르피이아 (hareupiia)
• Latin: harpyia f
• Polish: harpia (pl) f
• Portuguese: harpia (pt) f
• Romanian: harpie (ro)
• Russian: га́рпия (ru) f (gárpija)
• Spanish: arpía (es) f, harpía (es) f
• Swedish: harpya (sv) c

obnoxious, shrewish woman

• Asturian: harpía f
• Catalan: harpia (ca) f
• Danish: furie c
• Dutch: harpij (nl) f
• Finnish: harppu (fi)
• French: harpie (fr) f, chipie (fr) f, rosse (fr) f
• Galician: harpía (gl) f
• German: Drachen (de) m
• Hungarian: hárpia (hu)
• Polish: harpia (pl) f
• Portuguese: harpia (pt) f
• Romanian: scorpie (ro) f
• Russian: га́рпия (ru) f (gárpija), меге́ра (ru) f (megéra), сте́рва (ru) f (stérva)
• Scottish Gaelic: badhbh f, galla (gd) f
• Spanish: arpía (es) f

bird of prey of the subfamily Harpiinae

• Finnish: harpyija (fi)
• Portuguese: uiraçu m

See also

• harridan

Danish

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἅρπυιᾰ (hárpuiă).

Noun

harpy c (singular definite harpyen, plural indefinite harpyer)

1. (Greek mythology) a harpy
2. a harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja)

   Synonym: harpyørn

Declension

Declension of harpy

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	harpy	harpyen	harpyer	harpyerne
genitive	harpys	harpyens	harpyers	harpyernes

References

• “harpy” in Den Danske Ordbog

Turkmen

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɑrpɯ/

Noun

harpy

1. definite accusative of harp