demoisellen.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman demaysele, demoyselle and Middle French demiselle, Middle French, French demoiselle young unmarried lady, young woman, girl (see damsel n.), migratory crane (1680), any of various broad-winged damselflies (1680), a small brightly coloured fish of the family Pomacentridae (1831 or earlier): see further damsel n. Compare mademoiselle n. The various animals in branch II. are so called on account of their graceful appearance.With sense 3 compare the following earlier instance of the French noun in an English context:1700 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 22 673 It [sc. Libella] is a flying Insect, called in France Demoiselle, from the variety of its Colours, transparency of Wings, and its stately Flight. With sense 4 compare also the use of French regional (French Antilles) demoiselle for various other Caribbean fish species, as reported in the following quot.:1846 Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. New Ser. 2 338 Called ‘Striped Angel-fish’, at Jamaica; ‘Demoiselle’, at Martinique. In sense 5 after Seychelles Creole demwazel ( < French demoiselle). Compare the following earlier instance of the French noun in an English context as the name of a shark, although the name is here applied to a smaller Atlantic species, perhaps the silky shark, Carcharhinus falciformis (it is also later attested as a name for the bonnethead, Sphyrna tiburo):1771 tr. A.-J. Pernety Hist. Voy. Malouine Islands 64 Its skin was rough and hard like that of a shark, but considerably finer, nearly the same as that of the skin of a kind of shark, commonly slim and of a middling size, which our sailors call Demoiselle [Fr. Demoiselle].