Etymograph

English

Phaedra

Phaedra comes from Ancient Greek Φαίδρᾱ, and goes back to Φαῖδρος ‘Phaedrus’.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEΦαῖδρος‘Phaedrus’
  2. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEΦαίδρᾱPhaídrā
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEPhaedra
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1981same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEΦαῖδρος‘Phaedrus’
  2. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEΦαίδρᾱPhaídrā
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEPhaedra
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1981same form

Earliest quotation: 1981, Normand Berlin, The Secret Cause: A Discussion of Tragedy: “We notice that Racine's Phaedra, like Euripides', displays high…”

The story

The myth has been retold several times, in plays (in classical times in Euripides's Hippolytus and Seneca the Younger's Phaedra, later in Racine's Phèdre), and more recently in other media.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted.

Every English word from Ancient Greek Φαῖδρος

Today it means

name The wife of Theseus, who falls in love with but is spurned by her stepson Hippolytus, then commits suicide, but is the cause of his later death (details vary between versions).

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek Φαῖδρος / Phaedra

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