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sleepmarken

sleepmarken noun: a hagfish, an eel-like marine fish, Myxine glutinosa.

Noun

sleepmarken

  1. (uncommon) A hagfish, an eel-like marine fish, Myxine glutinosa.
    • 3. Myxine glutinosa ["slepmark" or "pirål" in Norwegian], which Gunnerus has dissected himself, and where he had clearly observed the difference between the sexes. [The article published by Gunnerus was, "Om sleep-marken"].1762 October 9, Johan Ernst Gunnerus, “Letter addressed to Carl Linnaeus”, in The Linnaean Correspondence, retrieved 04 Jan 2018
    • Linné discussed the strange “lamprey” with Norwegian Bishop and naturalist Johan Ernst Gunnerus and they both classified it as a worm. In 1763, Gunnerus wrote about the creature and he then referred to it as a Sleep-Marken.2011 December 19, Jancuk Jaran, “Hagfish”, in All Animals, retrieved 04 Jan 2018

Origin of sleepmarken

Unknown. Likely from Norwegian slepe (“drag”) + mark (“worm”). Attested from circa 1762; see quotations below.

Questions about sleepmarken

What does sleepmarken mean?
Sleepmarken means a hagfish, an eel-like marine fish, Myxine glutinosa.
What part of speech is sleepmarken?
Sleepmarken is a noun.

Words near sleepmarken in the dictionary

  1. sleeplessly
  2. sleeplessness
  3. sleeplessnesses
  4. sleeplike
  5. sleepmarch
  6. sleepmarken
  7. sleepmaxx
  8. sleepmaxxed
  9. sleepmaxxes
  10. sleepmaxxing
  11. sleepness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleepmarken (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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