zaratan

English

Etymology

Ultimately from Arabic سَرَطَان (saraṭān, “crab”), possibly via Spanish zaratán.

Noun

zaratan (plural zaratans)

  1. (mythology) In Arabic folklore, an extremely large (sea) turtle, the shell of which resembles an island.
    • 2019 June 18, Lindsay Cibos-Hodges, Jared Hodges, Draw Baby Beasties: Create Little Dragons, Unicorns, Mermaids and More, Penguin, →ISBN, page 86:
      […] turtle known as zaratans. Living for millennia, these slow-moving gentle giants dine exclusively on sea […] a zaratan's shell grows ever more complex as it ages.
    • 2019 October 8, Megan Linski, Alicia Rades, Hidden Legends, The Air Omen, Crystallite Publishing:
      […] turtle—a zaratan. On the zaratan's back were hundreds of tiny green frogs nestled in the seaweed, with bat wings and long reptile tails.
    • 2023 September 7, Emily Hawkins, A Natural History of Magical Beasts, →ISBN, page 54:
      […] from the colossal zaratan that cruises the seas to the gigantic roc that rules the skies or the deadly basilisk that haunts the ruins of ancient cities.

See also

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