oread

[awr-ee-ad, ohr‐]

noun

Classical Mythology. any of a group of nymphs who were the companions of Artemis.

Nearby words

Origin of oread

< Latin Orēad- (stem of Orēas) < Greek Oreiad- (stem of Oreiás), noun use of oreiás of the mountains, equivalent to órei(os) of the mountains (derivative of óros mountain) + -as feminine patronymic suffix

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for oread

There's a light passed from you, There's a joy outcast from you,— You have lost your Oread.
Songs from Vagabondia|Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey
I never ventured to read them to my Oread or fellow students.
Confessions of Boyhood|John Albee
She might have been an Oread or a Dryad wandering alone through the great forest.
The Redemption of David Corson|Charles Frederic Goss
Was she salamander or sylph, naiad or undine, oread or dryad?
There and Back|George MacDonald

Also many large elms grow along the upper slopes, especially along the outcrops of the two main strata of the Oread Limestone.
The Forest Habitat of the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation|Henry S. Fitch

British Dictionary definitions for oread

oread

noun

Greek myth a mountain nymph

Word Origin for oread

C16: via Latin from Greek Oreias, from oros mountain

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for oread

oread

1580s, from Latin Oreas (genitive Oreadis), from Greek Oreias "mountain nymph," from oros "mountain," probably from PIE root *er-/*or- "to raise" (cf. Sanskrit rsvah "high," Latin oriri "to raise;" see orchestra).