Medusae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of marine creature belonging to the phylum Cnidaria, characterized by a gelatinous, umbrella-shaped bell and tentacles hanging beneath it
2. Referring to the plural form of a specific kind of jellyfish, which often possesses stinging cells for capturing prey
3. Additionally, it can signify the mythological beings of Greek lore, famously represented as women with snakes for hair and a gaze that turns people to stone

Etymology: "Medusae" is the plural of "medusa," the term biologists use for the free-swimming, bell-shaped stage of many cnidarians, such as jellyfish. The singular was coined in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist who devised the modern system of biological classification, and he borrowed it from Medusa, the snake-haired Gorgon of Greek myth whose gaze turned onlookers to stone. The comparison was apt: a gelatinous bell with trailing tentacles looks like a head full of writhing serpents. Greek "Medousa" meant "guardian" or "ruler," from the verb "medein," to rule or protect, so the mythic name carried the sense of a fearsome protector before it became a picture of horror. Linnaeus was not the first to reach for the image, but his taxonomic use spread widely and fixed the term in scientific English.