siren

siren · noun, verb, adjective¹

1. Ancient Greek · derived fromΣειρήν
2. Latin · derived fromSīrēn
3. Old French · derived fromsereine
4. Middle English · inherited fromsiren
5. English todaysiren

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.

Siren · proper noun²

1. Swedish · derived fromsyren“lilac”
2. English todaySiren

Intended to be Syren, from Swedish syren (“lilac”), but miscorrected by the US Post Office, who assumed this was a misspelling.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 1879 A device, either mechanical or electronic, that makes a piercingly loud sound as an alarm or signal, or the sound from such a device.