selkie

noun

sel·kie ˈsel-kē

variants or less commonly Selkie or selchie

plural selkies also Selkies or selchies

: a mythical being with the ability to shape-shift between human and seal forms

To a selkie, the whole ocean is home. And so they think, sometimes, when they turn human … that the whole land might someday feel that way too …—

Miranda Schmidt

… the entire MacCodrum clan of the Outer Hebrides, known as "The MacCodrums of the Seals," claimed to be the offspring of a union between a selkie and a fisherman.—

Carole G. Silver

Superstition tells that a human woman can attract a male selchie by shedding seven tears into the ocean at high tide.—

Steenie Harvey

Examples of selkie in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Are the seals, known as selkies, really reincarnations of the dead? —

Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 31 Jan. 2024 Her sealskin confiscated from her, hidden or locked away, the selkie is trapped in her human form. —

Jennifer Berney, Outside Online, 7 Apr. 2023 In Celtic and Norse legends, the selkie is often a seal-woman who is found by a man and claimed as his wife. —

Jennifer Berney, Outside Online, 7 Apr. 2023 The Irish selkie or seal-woman was said to occasionally shed her skin and come ashore. —

Regina Hansen, WSJ, 24 June 2021 His daughter believes that the woman is a mythical selkie. —

Marisa Lascala, Good Housekeeping, 13 Jan. 2023

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from regional Scots (Northeast, Orkney, Shetland), "seal, folkloric personage having the form of a seal," from selch, selk "seal" (early Scots selich, selch, going back to Old English seolh) + -ie -ie — more at seal entry 1

Note: The Scots forms continue the nominative case of Old English seolh, the English forms the stem of the oblique cases.

First Known Use

circa 1690, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of selkie was circa 1690

See more words from the same year