Obs. [a. G. wassermann lit. ‘water-man.’] A fabled sea-monster partly in the form of a man, supposed to destroy ships.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 24. The griesly Wasserman, that makes his game The flying ships with swiftnesse to pursew.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., D 2 b. [The devils] entred and inhabited the Sea-monsters, such as the Whale, the Grampoys, the Wasserman, whom they haue suborned and inspyred to lye in wayte for Shipswrack. Ibid. (1599), Lenten Stuffe, 50. The greater giants of Russia & Island, as the whale, the sea horse, the Norse, the wasserman, the Dolphin, the Grampoys.
