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Origin and history of undine

undine(n.)

female water spirit, resembling the sylphs of the air and somewhat corresponding to the classical naiads, 1821, from Modern Latin Undina (1650s), coined by Paracelsus ("De Nymphis") in his alchemical system, from Latin unda "a wave, billow" (from PIE root *wed- (1) "water; wet").

The word was popularized by the German romance "Undine, eine Erzählung" (1811) by Baron F.H.C. La Motte Fouqué. Undinism (1928) was coined by sex researcher Havelock Ellis to describe the fetish for urine (which Ellis had); nowadays it would be called urophilia.

also from 1821

Entries linking to undine

synovia(n.)

a name applied to the albuminous fluid secreted by certain glands; with -al (1). + Modern Latin sinovia (16c.), a word probably coined by Paracelsus (1493-1541), whose coinages tend to be unetymological. Compare sylph, gnome (n.1), zinc, undine, and he influenced gas (n.1) and alcohol. The first element often is referred to syn-, the second perhaps to Latin ovum "egg," which would make it a hybrid.

In modern physiology, in reference to the lubricating fluid of joints and tendons, by 1690s. Related: Synovial (1756), "pertaining to the synovia."

*wed-(1)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "water; wet."

It might form all or part of: abound; anhydrous; carbohydrate; clepsydra; dropsy; hydra; hydrangea; hydrant; hydrargyrum; hydrate; hydraulic; hydro-; hydrogen; hydrophobia; hydrous; Hydrus; inundate; inundation; kirsch-wasser; nutria; otter; redound; redundant; surround; undine; undulant; undulate; undulation; vodka; wash; water (n.1); wet; whiskey; winter.

It might also be the source of: Hittite watar, Sanskrit udrah, Greek hydor, Old Church Slavonic and Russian voda, Lithuanian vanduo, Old Prussian wundan, Gaelic uisge "water;" Latin unda "wave;" Old English wæter, Old High German wazzar, Gothic wato "water."

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    Old English ribb "a rib; one of a series of long, slender, curved bones of humans and animals, forming a kind of cage or partial enclosure for the chief organs," from Proto-Germanic *rebjan (source also of Old Norse rif, Old Saxon ribbi, Old Frisian rib, reb, Middle Dutch, Dutch
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