Dictionary

sea-elf en · NOUN

Etymology

From sea + elf.

Meanings

1. A merman or mermaid.
   • When the moon is afloat, And the ocean at rest, The sea-elf goes forth To the town he loves best: Up from his cave, over the wave, With joy in his breast. 1896, Vincent O'Sullivan, Poems, London: Elkin Mathews, page 4:
   • TRITON. n seaelf, half man and half fish. 1859, Hyde Clarke, New and Comprehensive Dictionary of the English Languge, London: John Weale, page 413, column 2:
   • You may dare to face a howitzer's mouth, You may brave a wild beast's rage, And you'll know less dread with the first or last Than this old sea-elf - I'll wage; Yet he seem'd such a downright sociable ghost That I flinched not from his gage. 1833, The Olio: Collected by a Literary Traveller, Boston, page 184:

Forms