‖ Hydrus
(ˈhaɪdrəs)
[L., ad. Gr. ὕδρος water-snake; cf. hydra.]
1. A fabulous water-snake or sea-serpent.
| 1667 Milton P.L. x. 525 The Hall, thick swarming now With complicated monsters, head and tail,..Cerastes hornd. Hydrus, and Ellops drear. |
b. A former name for a genus of venomous sea-snakes, now called Hydrophis.
| [1601 Holland Pliny II. 258 The goodliest and fairest snakes to see too, are those which live in the water, and are called Hydri, water-snakes.] 1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 405/1 Hydrus. The serpents of this genus have the posterior part of the body and the tail very much compressed and elevated vertically, so as to give them a facility of swimming. |
2. Astron. One of the southern constellations, introduced by La Caille in the 18th c.
| 1796 Hutton Math. Dict., Hydrus, or Water Serpent, one of the few southern constellations, including only ten stars. 1868 Lockyer Guillemin's Heavens (ed. 3) 423 These half-stellar, half-nebulous systems..are situated, one between the Pole and Canopus..the other..in Hydrus, between Achernar and the Pole. |