Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A legendary sea creature having the head and upper body of a man and the tail of a fish.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A fabulous man of the sea, with the lower part of the body that of a fish.
- n. In heraldry, same as triton.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The male corresponding to
mermaid ; a sea man, or man fish.
WordNet 3.0
- n. United States singer who appeared in several musical comedies (1909-1984)
- n. half man and half fish; lives in the sea
Etymologies
- From Middle English mereman, from Old English *meremann ("merman") (suggested by Old English meremenn, meremennen, meremenin ("mermaid, siren"), equivalent to mer- + man. Cognate with Dutch meerman ("merman"), German Meermann ("merman"). (Wiktionary)
- mer(maid) + man. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We are told in one place a few lines further on that the merman is of humankind; and in another that he is a kind of fish (Night dccccxlv).”
“I'm from Earth but I'm what your people would call a merman.”
“The merman was the first to see the importance of uniting the continent of Otaria, saving its fragmented history.”
“The merman was the first to see the importance of uniting the continent of”
“I do not believe that there is such a being as a "merman" C'mon, face it!”
“The invitation featured a school of fish trailing a merman with hair made of coral riding a sea horse.”
“Ford 50th Anniversary TV show 1953 Decca EP merman/mart”
“In the watery foreground a buxom nude with an elaborate headdress is carried away on frilly waves by an aged, bearded merman with a tortoise-shell shield.”
“On stage, Mr. Martinez, the Frenchman, appeared as a merman, his legs hidden by a sparkling fish tail that he ripped off to reveal a pair of shorts with sequins as scales while the 1990s pop song "This Must be Underwater Love" kicked in.”
The Wall Street Journal: Despite Its Bad Reputation, Pole Dancing Appeals to Men in a New Way
“In Harryhausen's Clash, recently released in a Blu-ray special edition, the Kraken was controlled by sea god Poseidon and took the form of a gigantic merman.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘merman’.
-
A List of Mythical Proportions
All of these things exist, I swear!
unicorn, pegasus, cyclops, yeti, abominable snowman, bigfoot, phoenix, thunderbird, sea serpent, ogre, grue, troll and 138 more...
-
Man
Everything that contains a man in it
taxman, salesman, common man, spaceman, neolithic man, straw man, seaman, fireman, spiderman, overman, old man, con man and 373 more...
-
The Devil and His Imps
Names of 'the Devil himself, the devils his "flaming ministers", household goblins, rural demons, bogles, sprites, and fairies of all kinds' mentioned in Charles P.G. Scott's 'The Devil and His Imp...
devil, devilet, deviling, dablet, black angel, black man, black bear, black bull, black dog, bogle, bogie, boggard and 128 more...
-
Fictional beasties
elf, gnome, dwarf, sprite, troll, fairy, nymph, imp, brownie, sasquatch, yeti, wookiee and 574 more...
-
lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
-
Fabulous Creatures
Inspired by a Twitter exchange between Kory Stamper and other lexicographers about mythical beings with "fabulous" in their definitions.
mamuque, hippocampus, hippodame, hippogriff, kraken, cockatrice, griffin, centaur, chichevache, hippocentaur, hircocerf, tragelaphus and 40 more...
-
redloki's Words
shenanigans, alphanumeric, pneumonoultramicr..., banana, bamf, snikt, prestidigitation, defenestration, quixotic, indubitably, sasquatch, bigfoot and 80 more...
-
Ancient Greek mythical creatures and ...
argus, xanthus, water nymph, unipeg, siren, sileni, sea monster, oceanid, nereid, merman, mermaid, ipotanes and 6 more...
-
little light in the loafers
merman, divine, sassafras, jockstrap, milquetoast, defrocked, poppycock, murse, fabulous, ab fab, panache, gild the lily and 51 more...
-
Legendary Creatures of the Sea
And other bodies of water.
sea god, sea-goddess, Neptune, Amphitrite, Triton, Nereus, Oceanus, Proteus, Tethys, Doris, Manannan, manawydan and 51 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for merman.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.