File:John_William_Waterhouse_A_Mermaid.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ182559· pop 103· linked from 1,596 articles

mermaid

Also known as ‏merdaughter, mergirl, merlady, mermaiden, mermiss, mermisteress, mermother, merqueen

In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

AI overview

A mermaid is a mythical creature depicted in stories from cultures around the world as having a woman's head and upper body combined with a fish's tail. These folklore figures have captivated human imagination across Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa for centuries.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Vinony's link graph records 1,596 inbound references to mermaid, and connects out to tincture, One Thousand and One Nights and Nereids.

Vinony files it under Commons link from Wikidata, Fairy tale stock characters and Heraldic beasts.

Vinony links it to 97 Wikipedia language editions.

Key facts

Mythical creature.name: Mermaid
Mythical creature.image: John William Waterhouse A Mermaid.jpg
Mythical creature.caption: John William Waterhouse, A Mermaid (1900).
Mythical creature.Grouping: Mythological
Mythical creature.Sub_Grouping: Water spirit
Mythical creature.Country: Worldwide

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Mermaid - cover - Merman & mermaid, grand operatic phantasmagoria.png

Show 4 more facts

Commons category: Mermaids
Commons gallery: Mermaid
Unicode character: 🧜‍
P8168: copper(I) bromide

Sources (6)

via Wikidata · CC0

~59 min read

Encyclopedic overview

78 sections

Contents

Etymologies
Mermin
Merewif
Origins
Sirens
Medieval sirens as mermaids
Textual attestations
Iconographic attestations
Mirror and comb
Other Greek mythical figures
Ancient Middle Eastern mythology
Kulullû
Syrian mermaid goddess
Rational attempts at explanation
Medieval literature
Merwomen in Germanic literature
Nibelungenlied
Rabenschlacht
Folkore worldwide
Folklore of Britain and Ireland
Scandinavian folklore
Haffrue
Other aliases
General characteristics
Omen, prophecy and wisdom
Merfolk as abductors
Marmaele
Margýgr
Western European folklore
Byzantine and Ottoman Greek folklore
Eastern Europe
Chinese folklore
Korean folklore
Tale of Nangan
Japanese folklore
Indian, Southeast Asian, and Polynesian folklore
Indonesia
Philippines
New Zealand
African folklore
The Man Who Caught a Mermaid
Arabian folklore
''One Thousand and One Nights''
Americas folklore
Iara and Ipupiara
Alamoa
Reported sightings
Roman Lusitania and Gaul
Age of Exploration Americas and polar frontiers
Colonial Brazil
Dutch Formosa
Colonial Southeast Asia
Seventeenth-century Visayas
Eighteenth-century Moluccas
Qing dynasty China
U.S. and Canada
Twenty-first century
Hoaxes and show exhibitions
Manufactured merfolk specimens
Mermaid shows
Scientific inquiry
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
Art and music
Motion pictures
Heraldry
Fandom
Gallery
Illustrations and paintings
Sculptures
Carvings
Other uses
See also
Explanatory notes
References
Citations
General and cited references
External links

Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as storms, shipwrecks, and drownings (cf. ). In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same traditions), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “mermaid” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.