Mermaid
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish.
"Search the depth, & ſee that variety of Sea monſters & fiſhes, Mare-maids, Sea men, Horſes, &c. which it affords."
- 2 half woman and half fish; lives in the sea wordnet
- 3 Coloured a brilliant turquoise.
"a mermaid smoothie"
- 4 A prostitute. obsolete
"A Gentleman or an honeſt Cittizen, ſhall not Sit in your pennie-bench Theaters, vvith his Squirrell by his ſide cracking nuttes; nor ſneake into a Tauerne vvith his Mermaid; but he ſhall be Satyr'd and Epigram'd vpon, and his humour muſt run vpo'th Stage: […]"
Example
More examples"The legend says that she was a mermaid."
Etymology
From Middle English mermayde (“maid of the sea”), from mere (“sea, lake”) + maid, equivalent to mer- + maid. Cognate with Dutch meermeid (“mermaid”), Middle High German mermaget, mermeit (“mermaid”, > German Meermagd, Meermädchen (“mermaid”)). Compare Old English meremenn, meremennen, meremenin (“mermaid, siren”).
Related phrases
More for "mermaid"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.