siren

From Middle English siren, borrowed from Old French sereine and Latin Sīrēn/Sīrēna, which came from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn).

The word later branched out from its Greek mythological roots: in 1671 it picked up a mammalian sense in French, and in 1766 Linnaeus used it to name a genus of aquatic salamanders in his reptile classifications.