Etymologically
Log in

jellyfish

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 01:35. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈd͡ʒɛliˌfɪʃ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English jelly + fish,[2][3][4][5] for the animal's soft, jelly-like body.[3][6] Jelly is from Middle English gelee, from Old French gelee (“a jelly; frost”), a noun use of the feminine past participle of geler (“to freeze, congeal”), from Latin gelō (“to freeze, congeal”),[3][2] and fish is from Old English fisc.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in 1707, is for a fish, a lancetfish whose flesh is soft and gelatinous; this sense is rare and obsolete.[2][4][6] Etymonline also notes this use of 1707.[3]

Semantic evolution

The name moved to the soft, bell-shaped sea animals, the medusas, in 1758 according to the OED, in W. Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall,[2] although Etymonline dates this sense to 1796 and Merriam-Webster's Unabridged and the Historical Thesaurus to 1841.[3][7][6] Jelly alone had been used for such an animal since before 1668.[2] The figurative sense, a weak, ineffectual or cowardly person, followed in 1870 in the OED's record,[2] 1883 in Etymonline's.[3][6] In American slang the word was also an adjective, "weak, spineless" from 1892 and, in college slang of about 1901, "common, ordinary", as in a jelly-fish girl.[8]

Timeline

  • before 1668 – jelly, a jellyfish.[2]
  • 1707 – a lancetfish with soft, gelatinous flesh (now obsolete).[2][3]
  • 1758 – a medusa or similar soft-bodied sea animal.[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1796, Merriam-Webster's Unabridged to 1841.[3][7]
  • 1870 – a weak, ineffectual or cowardly person.[2] Etymonline dates the figurative use to 1883.[3]
  • 1892 – US slang adjective, weak, spineless.[8]
  • 1901 – US college slang adjective, common, ordinary.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A free-swimming sea animal, a cnidarian with a soft, gelatinous, often bell-shaped body and stinging tentacles, especially one of the class Scyphozoa: The beach was closed after a swarm of jellyfish drifted in.[9][10][7][2]
  2. (informal) A weak person, lacking backbone or force of character.[9][10][11][2]
  3. (obsolete, 1707) A lancetfish with soft flesh.[2][4]

Word family

  • box jellyfish
  • moon jellyfish

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers