siren

• n. サイレン; 魅力的な女性; 美しい声の歌手
• adj.チャーミング
• vi. サイレンを鳴らして運転する。
• vt.誘惑する

ラテン語のセイレーン、ギリシア語のセイレン、セフトから。古代ギリシア神話に登場する島に住む精霊で、その魅惑的な歌で船乗りを誘い、島の深淵に船を漕ぎ出させた。セイレンの語源はラテン語のSeiren（セイレン）、ギリシャ語のSeft（セフト）。

siren

siren: [14] The Seirēnes were sea nymphs who, according to Greek mythology, sat on rocks luring impressionable sailors to their doom with the sweetness of their singing. Latin took the word over as sīrēna, and it passed into English via Old French sereine. The term was applied to an acoustical instrument invented in 1819 by Cagniard de la Tour, that produced musical sounds and was used for measuring the frequency of sound waves, and it was this that formed the basis of its later use (in the 1870s) for a device for giving loud warning signals.

siren (n.)

mid-14c., "sea nymph who by her singing lures sailors to their destruction," from Old French sereine (12c., Modern French sirène) and directly from Latin Siren (Late Latin Sirena), from Greek Seiren ["Odyssey," xii.39 ff.], one of the Seirenes, mythical sisters who enticed sailors to their deaths with their songs, also in Greek "a deceitful woman," perhaps literally "binder, entangler," from seira "cord, rope."

Meaning "device that makes a warning sound" (on an ambulance, etc.) first recorded 1879, in reference to steamboats, perhaps from similar use of the French word. Figurative sense of "one who sings sweetly and charms" is recorded from 1580s. The classical descriptions of them were mangled in medieval translations and glosses, resulting in odd notions of what they looked like.

1. People were awakened rudely by a siren just outside their window.

人々は窓の外から聞こえてきた汽笛の音に突然目を覚ました。

2.It sounds like an air raid siren .

それは空襲警報のように聞こえる。

3.Somewhere in the distance a siren hooted.

遠くのどこかで警報音が鳴った。

4.The noise of the siren was deafening her.

サイレンの音が耳が聞こえなくなるほど震えた。

5.A police car raced past with its siren wailing.

パトカーがサイレンを鳴らして走り抜けた。