Link Centre Dictionary

Siren

si·ren

UK/ˈsaɪəɹən/ US/ˈsaɪɹən/ common

noun

1.

a sea nymph (part woman and part bird) supposed to lure sailors to destruction on the rocks where the nymphs lived

  • “Odysseus ordered his crew to plug their ears so they would not hear the Siren”
2.
3.
4.

an acoustic device producing a loud often wailing sound as a signal or warning

5.

eel-like aquatic North American salamander with small forelimbs and no hind limbs; have permanent external gills

Origin

From Middle English siren, from Old French sereine and Latin Sīrēn, Sīrēna, from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn). The mammalian sense was first attested in French in Dominique Bouhours, Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, in 1671. The aquatic salamander sense was originally introduced by Linnaeus in 1766, for a genus of his reptiles.

Phrases

  • air raid siren
  • dwarf siren
  • greater siren
  • leopard siren
  • lesser siren
  • reticulated siren
  • siren call
  • siren song

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.