hydra
nomattesté dans les dialogues
- //ˈhaɪdɹə//
A dragon-like creature with many heads and the ability to regrow them when maimed.
nom
- 1
A dragon-like creature with many heads and the ability to regrow them when maimed.
- 2
Any of several small freshwater polyps of the genus Hydra and related genera, having a naked cylindrical body and an oral opening surrounded by tentacles.
- 3
figuréA complex, multifarious problem or situation that cannot be easily and rapidly solved.
Because the statute is so vaguely worded, award decisions are habitually based on case law, the growing mountain of which is a hydra of rulings that point in so many directions that almost any decision can be defended or overturned on appeal, depending on how smart your lawyer is and which precedent he selects to argue your case.
Étymologie
After the Hydra, from Greek mythology, which grew two new heads every time one of its heads was cut off. The biology sense alludes to the budding method of asexual reproduction that the hydra practices, similar to growing new heads. The figurative sense refers to how the creature could not be killed by a swift, decisive solution (in contrast to a Gordian knot).
Formes
- pluriel
- hydras, hydrae, hydræ
hydra · A dragon-like creature with many heads and the ability to regrow them when maimed.
Hydra · A mythological serpent with many heads, slain by Hercules as…hydraulic · Pertaining to water.hydrogen · The lightest chemical element (symbol H), with an atomic…