† merminn.

Etymology: < mere n.¹ + Old English menen female servant, bondwoman ( < the Germanic base of man n.¹ + the Germanic base of -en suffix²). Compare (with a different suffix) Old Icelandic marmennill merman (see marmennill n.). Compare also Middle Dutch merminne (Dutch meermin ), Old Saxon meriminna (Middle Low German mērminne ), Old High German merimenni , merimin , meriminna (Middle High German merminne ), all in sense ‘mermaid, siren’, in which the second element probably represents an original neuter ja -stem derivative of the Germanic base of man n.¹ (compare Old Icelandic -menni in góðmenni good person, illmenni bad person, and other compounds).The β. forms apparently represent a shortening of the α. forms. Confusion of the second element with man n.¹ is already apparent in Old English (compare the plural form mære men in quot. OE). The form mereman in quot. a1300 also appears to show reanalysis of the second element after man n.¹ (the referent is evidently a female, and the form is therefore to be distinguished from later merman n.).