sea monk

English

A folkloric sea monk.

Noun

sea monk (plural sea monks)

1. (dated) Monk seal.
2. (folklore) A sea creature in European folklore (in the 16th century), a sort of fish that resembled (and was sometimes robed or tonsured like) a European monk.
   • 2005, Steenstrupia, volume 29, page 40-45

     […] three sea monks being found in 1530, 1546 and 1549. In fact the first sea monk was not a sea monk at all, having been found in the Rhine. The second one was found near Copenhagen with a black head and the clothes of a monk and the final one was found near Hafnia (Copenhagen), tonsured like a monk. […] Nonetheless walruses remain a possible explanation for the occurence of sea monks prior to 1546.

   • 2019, Holly MacArthur, Tin House 80: 20th Anniversary Edition:

     Sea monks had failed to assert themselves into the popular imagination the way mermaids had. They lacked a certain appeal. The few pictorial depictions stuck a tonsured human head on a fish body, scaly fins and tail forming the monk's ...

References

• “sea monk”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• sokeman