Some European Romance languages still use the term siren to denote the mermaid, e.g., French sirène' and Spanish and Italian sirena. The siren of Ancient Greek mythology became conflated with mermaids during the medieval period. Whereas the Old English stem menen strictly meant 'female servant, handmaid'. The Scandinavian forms may be either male or female, at least etymologiclly, as ON man can mean either 'bondsman' or 'bondswoman, handmaid'.

Old Norse marmennill, -dill, masculine is also listed as cognate, as well as ON margmelli, modern Icelandic marbendill, and modern Norwegian marmæle. Though it is noted that the Middle English spelling being close so close to ' merman' could be misleading. 1220) represent sirens, so they are unquestionably intended to be taken for females. OHG meremanniu (plural) in the elder German Physiologus and Middle English mereman in a bestiary (c. 725), and Old High German merimenni annotates 'sirens' of the bible.

Old English mereminne is paired with 'siren' the Corpus Glossary (c. męremęnen 'sea' + męnen 'female slave' into Middle English and used until the 14th century. It passed from Old English męremęnen, ad. The now obsolete English mermin is defined as 'mermaid or siren' in the OED.

Middle High German merwîp designates the prophetc 'mermaids' that Hagen encounters just as he is about to ferry along the Danube River, and they are also called sjókonar in the Old Norse Þiđreks saga. Middle High German meerminne is the corresponding word for mermaid, and in the poem Rabenschlacht ('Battle of Ravenna', 13th cent.) the mermaid is named Wâchilt is the ancestress who carries the warrior to her 'submarine home'. meerminne and meerwîp (German heroic epics) It might be worthwhile to note that the Scandinavian version transposes the location of battle, and the mermaid rescues her great-grandson from battle in northern Germany (Gronsport), taking him away back to Denmark. Þiðreks saga does (in the segment sometimes cited as Vikina saga), refer to the same mermaid, but as a 'sea-woman' ( sjó kona, normalized spelling) While Old Swedish haffru is attested in a penultimate chapter of 'Ðiðriks saga' (15th century), otherwise referred to as the 'Swedish epilogue' to the Old Norse Þiðreks saga. A supposed Old Norse haffrú is the etymological source of Norman French havette for a man-snatching water-sprite, according to one linguist. The Scandinavian term haffru for mermaid can elusively be traced to medieval literature. Old English męrewif is also noted, but the word has been applied to a she-troll or sea-hag ( Grendel's mother) and is not well-attested later. Īnother English word 'mermin' is older, with Old English attestations, but is now obsolete. The compound word is formed from ' mere' (sea), and ' maid'. The English word 'mermaid' is not very old, with the earliest attestation in Middle English ( Chaucer, Nun's Priest's Tale, c. The Fisherman and the Syren, by Frederic Leighton, c. 16.2 Age of Exploration Americas and polar frontiers.They have subsequently been depicted in operas, paintings, books, comics, animation, and live-action films. Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature in recent centuries, such as in Hans Christian Andersen's literary fairy tale ' The Little Mermaid' (1836). While there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside folklore, reports of mermaid sightings continue to the present day. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean, may have been sightings of manatees or similar aquatic mammals. The Western concept of mermaids as beautiful, seductive singers may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology, which were originally half-birdlike, but came to be pictured as half-fishlike in the Christian era.

The male and the female collectively are sometimes referred to as merfolk or merpeople. Although traditions about and sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts. The male equivalent of the mermaid is the merman, also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same traditions), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. John William Waterhouse, A Mermaid (1900).

Mermaid hand mirror