A cross-linguistic jellyfish vocabulary

Any language used by coastal and seafaring people can be expected to have one or more words for jellyfish, since jellies are found in oceanic waters around the globe—from surface waters to the deep. Jellyfish terms in other languages often reflect aspects of appearance, behavior or occurrence. Jellyfish enthusiast Juli Berwald has researched jellyfish and human-jelly-relationships in many countries. In her inspiring book with the title “Spineless” [1], I found my favorite description of cross-linguistic jellyfish names. Here is a passage from the chapter “Bloom” (chapter 22): 

In Spain, Italy, and France, a jellyfish is named for the misunderstood mythological Medusa. Similarly, Israel calls jellies meduzot. In Latin America, besides medusas, jellies are called malaguas or agua mala, meaning “bad water.” Sometimes they are called lagrimas de mar, which pulls at the heart with its meaning: “tears of the sea.” More encouragingly, in Portuguese, jellyfish are known as água-viva, or “living water.” I give the award for the most creative of the Romance-language names to aguacuajada, which means “curdled water” in Spanish. 
                                                                       Juli Berwald, 2017

Juli Berwald continues with other interesting terms or phrases used for jellies in various languages. Since she does not include Dutch and German nouns for jellyfish, I like to add these two related words here: kwal and Qualle, respectively. According to my German handbook of word origins [2], the lower German (Niederdeutsch) word Qualle is in use since at least the 16th century. The word is assumed to be related to the German verb “quellen” (to swell) and, thus, “eine Qualle” (a jellyfish) is “something swollen.”


Based on the words in Berwald's book [1] and the IDL jellyfish page [3], I am here putting together a short cross-linguistic jellyfish vocabulary, covering selected languages:

• Arabic: quanadil albahr
• Chinese: haizhe
• Danish: vandmand, meaning  “water man”
• Dutch: kwal  
• English: jellyfish, with jelly as short form; also sea jelly
• Farsi: arood darya-i, meaning  “sea bride”
• French: medusa
• German: Qualle
• Greek: médousa (μέδouσα)
• Hebrew: meduzot
• Icelandic: marglytta 
• Indonesian: ubur-ubur
• Italian: medusa
• Malayalam (tip of India): kadalchori
• Norwegian: manet
• Japanese: kurage 
• Spanish: medusa, aguacuajada
• Swedish: manet
• Turkish: deniz anası
• Vietnamese: sua
• Welsh (slang): psygod wibbly wobbly, meaning  “wiggle wiggle fish”

References and more to explore

[1] Juli Berwald: Spineless. Riverhead Books, New York, 2017.
[2] Duden Herkunftswörterbuch - Etymologie der deutschen Sprache. 3rd Edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim, 2001.
[3] IDL: How to Say Jellyfish in Different Languages. Link: https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/jellyfish. 

What are Lessepsian migrants?

Lessepsian migrants are invasive marine species that are “traveling” via the Suez Canal by water flow or maritime transport from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. When they succeed in colonizing their new environment, they impact marine ecosystems of the Mediterranean. In fact, they then have crossed a once natural land barrier between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the ecological influence of Lessepsian migrants will reach beyond the Mediterranean. The blue-spotted cornet fish may become the first Red Sea species to reach Gibraltar and even move farther [1].

The anthropogenically caused Lessepsian migration is named after the French diplomat and administrator Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805 - 1905), who was inspired by Napoleon's abandoned plans for a canal through Egypt that would shortcut the long sea journey around the southern tip of Africa [2].

The blue-spotted cornet fish is just one example of a Lessepsian migrant. Tiger prawns, mackarel and poisonous pufferfish are further examples—affecting not only ecosystems but humans, beneficially and otherwise. In her book with the title “Spineless,“ Juli Berwald explores facts and secrets of jellyfish [1]. The nomadic jellyfish is thought to be a Lessepsian migrant. Massive blooms of nomadic jellyfish have been witnessed off the Mediterranean coast. Spineless or not, species continue invading the eastern Mediterranean. Juli Berwald describes Lessepsian migration as follows:

The number of new invasive species in the Mediterranean has doubled in the last two decades. Over four hundred species have traveled the Suez from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and established populations there. Together they have earned their own name, Lessepsian migrants, which recalls the Frenchman who envisioned and developed the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps. Because of the flow pattern in the canal, only a few species have made the reverse passage from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.                                                                 Juli Berwald, 2017

Keywords: marine biology, non-native species, invasion, terminology.

References and more to explore

[1] Juli Berwald: Spineless. Riverhead Books, New York, 2017.
[2] BBC History: Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805 - 1894). Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_lesseps_ferdinand.shtml.