Mereman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mythical male creature of the sea, with the upper body of a man and the tail of a fish
2. An imaginary sea being that has a man's torso joined to a fish's tail below the waist
3. A legendary marine figure, half human and half fish, appearing in old sailors' tales of the ocean

Etymology: Mereman is an Old English compound, formed from "mere" meaning "sea" or "lake" and "man," and it is attested in Old English texts as a word for a mythical sea creature with a human upper body and a fish's tail. The word's first element is cognate with Latin "mare," so the same root lies behind English "marine," though the Old English "mere" more often meant a lake or pool, which is why the compound is sometimes glossed in dictionaries with terms for a lake-dweller as well as a sea-dweller. Its appearance in the Old English glosses is the main evidence for the word, and it is one of the few surviving native English names for the creature that later spread widely through medieval European bestiaries under Latin and French names. Because the word is a plain compound built from transparent parts, its meaning is clear from its elements. It is recorded only in early English sources and did not survive into modern usage, so it now appears mainly in dictionaries and scholarly discussions of Old English vocabulary.