Bingley's post mentioning hyenas made me look them up (I was wondering where all their territory is). Look at the Latin in the etymology--it's still the same!
hy·e·na also hy·ae·na (hî-ç'nə)
n.
Any of several carnivorous mammals of the family Hyaenidae of Africa and Asia, which feed as scavengers and have powerful jaws, relatively short hind limbs, and coarse hair.

[Middle English hiena, from Old French hiene, from Latin hyaena, from Greek huaina, feminine of hûs, swine (from its bristly mane like a hog's).] (Gurunet)

The Latin spelling reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask here: how do most people pronounce the first sound in Oedipus? I was taught it as ed, same as edward. But perhaps some people say eed (rhymes with deed)?
I hope so, 'cause that's the only excuse I could come up with for my not catching on to the character's nickname in a book I'm reading: Rex Eatapuss.

The 'ed' pronunciation dominates the local speech of students and teachers alike around here, but the 'eed' is what I hear consistently in educational videos.


Prescriptivist:
First syllable of "Oedipus" == 'eed'

Descriptivist:
First syllable of "Oedipus" == 'ed'

Ah--many thanks, WW.

how do most people pronounce the first sound in Oedipus?

I learned to pronounce it /'EdIpus/ (with /E/ as in let /'lEt/ and /I/ as in two-bit /'tu,bIt/), but during my stuffy phase in college I took to pronouncing it /'id@pus/ (with /i/ as in machine /ma'Sin/ and /@/ as in schwa). The former tends to be US English and the latter British. Hyena, I've always pronounced /haj'in@/ (with /j/ as in yeast /jist/).

In confirmation of that, I always say and hear /'i:dIp@s/, and I've never heard /'ed-/. Which I take to be indirect evidence that he was never the hero of a Saturday morning cartoon.

The original of Œdipus was pronounced with the sound /OY/ as in 'Oy-vey'. This sound and the Æ, which was pronounced /AY/ as in ¡Ay, caramba!, conflated in medieval Latin to a sound like an Italian E. We are always told to pronounce this as a short E when singing Italianate Church Latin, for what *that's worth.

conflated in medieval Latin to a sound like an Italian E

It's probably that Latin, towards the end of the Western Roman Empire, was going through this change, (i.e., æ /aj/ and œ /oj/ > /E/). Although, I use the /'EdIp@s/ pronounciation now, I pronounce Æschylus /'isk@l@s/, though /'Esk@l@s/ is the preferred American pronunciation. Diphthongs yielding simple vowels is a common enough historical change.

A man had a problem with his Doberman, who was named Rex. It seems that Rex had the bad habit of swallowing little kittens whole! The Vet diagnosed the dog's condition as Eatapuss Rex.