jellyfish
JEL-ee-fish · noun
Origin
Jellyfish combines jelly and fish. Jelly traces back through Old French gelee and Latin gelata to the Proto-Indo-European root *gel-, meaning cold or freeze, while fish comes from Old English fisc, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *péysks.
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Journey
The compound word appeared in the mid-19th century, replacing older names like sea jelly, blubber, sea nettle, and the scientific term medusa. Despite its name, a jellyfish isn't actually classified as a fish at all — it's simply an aquatic creature with a gelatinous body.
Related words
Jelly shares its frosty root with words tied to cold and freezing, since *gel- is the same PIE root behind gelū, the Latin word for frost.