hydaspes
/haɪˈdæspiːz/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.25 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
The river Jhelum, on the Indian subcontinent, especially as the location of a battle fought by Alexander the Great against King Porus in 326 BCE.
name
A god associated with the river.
Example Sentences
- "1796, William Robertson, The History of America, 1812, 1st American Edition, Volume 1, page 454, When Alexander marched along the banks of the Hydaspes and Ancesine, two of the rivers which fall into the Indus, he observed that there were many crocodiles in those rivers, and that the country produced beans of the same species with those which were common in Egypt. From these circumstances, he concluded that he had discovered the source of the Nile, and prepared a fleet to sail down the Hydaspes to Egypt."
- "1813, John Rooke (translator), Arrian of Nicomedia, Arrian's History of the expedition of Alexander the Great, J. Davis, 2nd Edition, page 221, Alexander having now made ready a fleet on the banks of the river Hydaspes, manned it with all the Phœnicians Cyprians, and Egyptians which he found in his camp, choosing the sailors and rowers out of such as he knew to be expert in sea affairs."
- "In 326, after fighting his way across the various regions and tributaries of the upper Indus or Punjab as far as the Hydaspes River, Alexander encountered Porus, the king of the region between the Hydaspes and the Acesines (Chenab) rivers."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin Hydaspēs, from Ancient Greek Ὑδάσπης (Hudáspēs), itself from Sanskrit वितस्ता (vitastā), also proposed to have been borrowed from Old Persian *Vidāspaʰ (literally “caring for horses”), from *vīd- (“to take care of”) + 𐎠𐎿𐎱 (a-s-p, “horse”) to explain the development -sp- instead of -st-, but this has no basis in any attested names for the river.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Ὑδάσπης, वितस्ता, *Vidāspaʰ
Phrases
Battle of the Hydaspes