mermaidism

English

Etymology

mermaid +‎ -ism

Noun

mermaidism (uncountable)

1. The condition of being a mermaid.
   • 2004, Mark I. Pinsky, The Gospel according to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust, page 142:

     There is an understanding that differences of culture, faith, and traditions can create barriers to a successful relationship. And since Prince Eric cannot 'convert' to mermaidism, she converts.

   • 2018 November, Heather Magda Serrano, “The Little Mermaid and Houseboats”, in Houseboat Magazine:

     With Tami’s growing success in professional mermaidism and being able to live on a houseboat on the water, she feels right at home and completely in her element.

   • 2020, Fred Saberhagen, Farslayer's Story:

     From what he has to say, it seems that mermaidism produced by magic ought to be a very easy thing to cure.

   • 2022, Sacha Black, Trey:

     Mermaidism is a matriarchal gene carried on the female chromosome.

2. A love of or obsession with mermaid lore and paraphernalia.
   • 1922, John Paris, Kimono, page 36:

     Really it was time to put an end to lunch picnics and mermaidism.

   • 2007, Canadian Book Review Annual, page 273:

     […] of "mermaidism" in other women, and even selects her clothing and accessories to enhance her connection to the tailed beings.

   • 2016 September 1, Taylor Prewitt, Sarah Teveldal, “One Nation, Under Water: Mermaids of Texas”, in Tribeza:

     For Sirenalia’s clients, mermaidism is a way to be their best selves. People who buy the tails and participate in the culture aren’t just fascinated by mermaids.

3. The belief in mermaids as real creatures.
   • 1861 December 7, “Science: Review of The Romance of Natural History By Philip Henry Gosse.”, in The Athenæum, number 1780, page 769:

     The Miscellany of Natural History would have been a more appropriate title,—for what romance can be found in the absurdities of mermaidism or in the “self-immured,” to wit, “Mr. Bartlett's toad, Mr. Bree's toad, Mr. Smith's toad, Mr. Clark's toad," and the toads of other respectable gentlemen.

   • 1919, The Nation - Volume 25, page 100:

     Mermaidism, which lifted up its voice in the correspondence columns of the NATION a few weeks ago, has no sound basis in history.

   • 2024, Michael J. Altman, ‎ Erik Kline, ‎ Dana Lloyd, American Examples, page 146:

     I find "Irenaeus's" choice of penname curious because, asde from Millerism, neither mesmerism nor "mermaidism" is heretical in the usual sense of the word.

4. Synonym of sirenomelia
   • 1949, Carl Dame Clarke, Illustration: Its Technique and Application to the Sciences, page 32:

     There is either elephantiasis or dropsy of the left leg, and some disease or accident has resulted in a sort of mermaidism of the right.

   • 1972, The First Conference on the Clinical Delineation of Birth Defects, volume 8 issue 2, page 77:

     It is also of interest that there are 12 cases with radial aplasia and four cases with esophageal atresia among some 200 case reports of sirenomelia, or mermaidism, a severe anomaly of postaxial mesoderm which always includes imperforate anus and lower vertebral defects.

   • 2016, Kate Noson, “That Hateful Tail: The Sirena as Figure for Disability in Italian Literature and Beyond”, in California Italian Studies, volume 6, number 1:

     The medicalization of Santamato’s mermaid body, which necessitates this separation of her legs, recalls a surgical procedure conducted in cases of what is known as “sirenomelia,” also called Mermaid Syndrome or “mermaidism.”

   • 2020, Peter D Turnpenny, ‎Sian Ellard, ‎Ruth Cleaver, Emery's Elements of Medical Genetics, page 240:

     Malformations that occur most commonly in such infants include congenital heart disease, nerual tube defects, vertebral segmentation defects and sacral agenesis, femoral hypoplasia, holoprosencephaly, and sirenomelia ("mermaidism”).

5. The condition of being partly one thing and partly another; hybridism.
   • 1854 July, “Obstacles to Revivals”, in The Freewill Baptist Quarterly, volume 2, page 306:

     But, furthermore, the true Revival of pure Religion, is meeting at this day a still more fearful obstacle, in the system of go-betweenity or theological mermaidism, which has arisen out of the ashes of old defunct infidelity, and is boasting its able champions.

   • 1954, The Bucknell Review, page 20:

     As for the competing attractions of the Church, there was certainly a rise in what might be called ecclesiastical mermaidism at this period — that is , an increased interest in the superficial and non-communicative aspects of religious ceremonial, in ritual and vestments for their own sake, in Church art not as a living thing internally determined but as a self-conscious copy of the living art of another period: Hudson River Gothic, in a word.

   • 2020, Monika Rudaś-Grodzka, “Mermaidism. The poetry of Julia Fiedorczuk”, in Lingue e Linguaggi, volume 37:

     In it, I introduce the category of mermaidism, which is connected with hybridism; it is the creative foundation for poetry which opposes the forces of unification, bonding, thinking of continuum and symmetry.