mermaid means A mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish. It carries an Arena rating of 1583, earned across 19 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mermaid ranks #205 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #720 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #1,305 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,648 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
mermaid is pronounced /ˈmɜːˌmeɪd/.
Why “mermaid” is a great word
A mythological aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a human female and the tail of a fish. From Middle English mermayde ('maid of the sea'), a compound of mere ('sea, lake') + maid ('maiden'). Unlike a 'siren,' which in classical myth denotes a specifically dangerous, bird-like enchanter of sailors, or a 'selkie,' a seal-being of Celtic lore that transforms wholly between forms, a mermaid is the enduring icon of a permanent, melancholic duality. She is the flash of pearlescent scale in sun-dappled deeps, the glimpse of a pale shoulder on a moonlit rock, and the lonely silhouette on a distant, foam-fringed reef—the eternal symbol of a beauty just beyond our element, forever divided from the world she watches.
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”).
noun
- A mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish.
- Coloured a brilliant turquoise.e.g.“a mermaid smoothie”
- A prostitute.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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