mermaid

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
12
Words With Friends
14
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ˈmɜːˌmeɪd/(UK)
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈmɜːˌmeɪd/(UK) · /ˈmɝ.meɪd/(US)

Definition of mermaid

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  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.”
    “People that are drowned, and whose bodies are not founds are believed to have been taken into the dwellings of the Mermaids.”
See all 3 definitions

noun

  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.”
    “People that are drowned, and whose bodies are not founds are believed to have been taken into the dwellings of the Mermaids.”
  2. Coloured a brilliant turquoise.
    “a mermaid smoothie”
    “mermaid ice-cream”
  3. (obsolete)A prostitute.
    “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: […]”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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”).

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