Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Medusa
/mɪˈdjuːsə/noun
The free-swimming bell-shaped stage of a jellyfish; also the snake-haired Gorgon of Greek myth.
The Greek roots
Μέδουσα
Médousa
the ruling one
Literally: “she who rules over”
Follow a root:Μέδουσα1 word
The story of the word
The name is a participle of medein, to protect or rule over, so the monster is literally the guardian. Of the three Gorgons only Medusa could be killed, which is the reason the myth has a plot. Linnaeus applied Medusa to jellyfish in the eighteenth century for the obvious reason: trailing tentacles that hang like hair.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
gorgonmedusoidAndromeda
In a sentence
The polyp stays fixed to the rock; the medusa drifts off and spawns.