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| adj. Relating to or inhabiting the ocean waters between the low tide mark and a depth of about 200 meters (656 feet): neritic plankton. [German neritisch (term introduced in 1891 by Ernst Heinrich Haeckel), after Greek Nēritēs, a handsome son of Nereus who was transformed into a sea snail (perhaps chosen by Haeckel because Nereus was the son of both Gaea, the personification of the earth, and Oceanus, the personification of the outer ocean, and the neritic zone is the part of the sea near dry land), perhaps from folk-etymological alteration (taken as Nēreus, Nereus; see NEREUS + -ītēs, -ite; see –ITE1) of anērītēs, sea snail, triton, probably of Mediterranean substrate origin.] |
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