Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun In the occult philosophy of Paracelsus, a being having water as its element.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An apparatus for irrigating the eye in the operation of extracting cataract.
  • noun A water-spirit of the female sex, resembling in character the sylphs or spirits of the air, and corresponding in some measure to the naiads of classical mythology. According to Paracelsus, when an undine married a mortal and bore a child she received a soul.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One of a class of fabled female water spirits who might receive a human soul by intermarrying with a mortal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A female water-sprite or nymph.
  • noun The elemental being of water.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various female water spirits

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin undīna, from Latin unda, wave; see wed- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Modern Latin undina, from Latin unda ("wave").

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Examples

  • When I had swum a while -- how many breaths I cannot say, for I did not draw breath -- I recalled the undine and set out to find her.

    The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987

  • Something that could only be an undine stared into Kellen's eyes for a long moment before flitting away.

    Tran Siberian Michael J. Solender 2010

  • There were some suggested improvements, including building up the growing love between the plumber and the undine, mentioning earlier that undines are incurable romantics, and changing the plumber's ex (who shows up several times) into several separate exes to demonstrate the plumber's previous personal history.

    6/18/08: Taos Toolbox, days 10-11: Some have broken under the strain of it 2008

  • They came to a place where a small waterfall spilled down into a deep rocky catch-basin, which in turn overflowed to make the stream where he had seen the undine the day before.

    Tran Siberian Michael J. Solender 2010

  • She (to persist in personifying the sensation as female) is a wild and sea-eyed undine, the darling daughter of adventure, the sister of risk, and it is for her rare and always ephemeral embrace, the temporary pressure she exerts on the membrane of ecstasy, that many men leave home.

    La insistencia de Jürgen Fauth 2010

  • For a variety of reasons I decided to use on a story idea I had a long time ago about a magical plumber who meets an undine.

    6/14/08: Taos Toolbox, days 6-7: Nellie Goes Spung! 2008

  • I'll skip over asking them to see that themselves. undine commented at 1:33 PM~

    Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2009

  • Nope, not unless he's really hungry. undine commented at 1:34 PM~

    Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2009

  • What a cool family you have. undine posted at 5:49 PM

    Camp has never smelled so good e 2009

  • A new career: hired background. undine posted at 3:43 PM

    Island mansion e 2009

Comments

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  • See hork.

    May 24, 2008

  • Dontcry... it took me a moment, but now I'm chuckling unstoppably. Thank you! :-)

    May 24, 2008

  • No, pterodactyl, thank YOU!

    May 25, 2008