mermaid

noun

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”).

1. A mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish.

   “Search the depth, & ſee that variety of Sea monſters & fiſhes, Mare-maids, Sea men, Horſes, &c. which it affords.”

   “People that are drowned, and whose bodies are not founds are believed to have been taken into the dwellings of the Mermaids.”

2. Coloured a brilliant turquoise.

   “a mermaid smoothie”

   “mermaid ice-cream”

3. A prostitute.

   “A Gentleman or an honeſt Cittizen, ſhall not Sit in your pennie-bench Theaters, vvith his Squirrell by his ſide cracking nuttes; nor ſneake into a Tauerne vvith his Mermaid; but he ſhall be Satyr'd and Epigram'd vpon, and his humour muſt run vpo'th Stage: […]”