Other forms: mermaids
A mermaid is a creature of legend, half woman and half fish. A mermaid's tail, the little mermaid, mermaid stories.
The name is literally sea-maid: mere is an old word for the sea, which survives in a few place names and in the mere meaning a lake. Sailors reporting them were probably seeing manatees. The male is a merman, a much later coinage.
1nounmermaidA legendary creature, half woman and half fish.
“In the fairy tale, the little mermaid gives up her voice so she can walk on land.”
mermaid is a legendary creature.
Middle English mermayde is mere, the sea, plus maid. Mere survives as a word for a lake.
Proto-Indo-European
*mer-
Middle English
mermayde — maid of the sea
English, today
mermaid
From Middle English mermayde (“maid of the sea”), from mere + maid, equivalent to mer + maid. Cognate with Dutch meermeid (“mermaid”), Middle High German mermaget, mermeit (“mermaid”). Compare Old English meremenn, meremennen, meremenin (“mermaid, siren”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA