What is Pickled Mermaid?
1.
A lifelike miniature model of a mermaid floating in a sealed jar, meant as an amusing toy or circus attraction, to create the illusion that a real mermaid has been captured. It is primarily an anachronism dating from early European colonialism and its sea-spanning knick-knack industries, and has since acquired vaguely occult connotations.
Sometimes the phrase is borrowed by clever marketers, such as for items in restaurant menus.
Robert loved the museum: the frail mummies and immense sarcophagi; the stuffed platypus and pickled mermaid; the wall bristling with elephant tusks and moose antlers and unicorn horns. -- "Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang
See
Random Words:
1.
A person who enjoys speaking and/or behaving in anachronistic fashion.
1) One who speaks in the ye olde style.
2) Someone who wears ol..
1.
Drinking to excess, especially during the daylight hours.
I went out bartelbying with my mates yesterday and threw up in the car on the..
