harpy

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈhɑːrpi/ UK /ˈhɑːpi/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a rapacious, ill-tempered woman; a mythical winged monster with a woman's face

The landlady descended like a harpy demanding her rent.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a rapacious, ill-tempered... shrew viragotermagantfury hellcat scold

Word family

Related forms harpies

Etymology

From Latin harpyia, from Ancient Greek harpyia ('snatcher'), the rapacious winged monsters, from harpazein ('to seize, snatch').

harpyia Ancient Greek harpazein Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# harpy

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈhɑːrpi/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈhɑːpi/

## Meanings
1. a rapacious, ill-tempered woman; a mythical winged monster with a woman's face

## Examples
- The landlady descended like a harpy demanding her rent.

## Synonyms
- shrew
- virago
- termagant
- fury
- hellcat
- scold

## Related Forms
- harpies

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: harpyia
- Root: harpazein

## Etymology
From Latin harpyia, from Ancient Greek harpyia ('snatcher'), the rapacious winged monsters, from harpazein ('to seize, snatch').

## AI Etymology
harpy comes from Latin harpyia, from Ancient Greek harpyia ('snatcher'), the rapacious winged monsters, from harpazein ('to seize, snatch'). The path is chiefly one of transmission: the word passes through the named languages and forms, with each stage preserving part of the modern shape. In present English, the noun sense is "a rapacious, ill-tempered woman; a mythical winged monster with a woman's face", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as harpies. Its semantic neighborhood includes shrew, virago, termagant, and fury, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Ancient Greek harpyia and Ancient Greek harpazein.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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