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What does “sirène” mean in French?

Une sirène is a mermaid. Une sirène is also the wailing alarm on an ambulance or a factory roof. The overlap is not a coincidence: the device was built by a French physicist in 1819, and because it could still be heard under water he named it after the Sirens of the Odyssey, whose singing pulled sailors off course. French has used one word for both ever since.

The physicist was Charles Cagniard de la Tour, and his sirène was a laboratory instrument for measuring pitch long before it warned anyone of anything. The Sirens of Greek myth were bird-women; the fish tail is a later medieval image, which is why sirène now points straight at mermaids in French. Everyday uses: la sirène des pompiers, and le chant des sirènes for a tempting offer.