the.com/great white shark

means A large, powerful predatory shark with a gray back, white underside, and a reputation far bloodier than its actual behavior toward humans.

from The name is straightforwardly descriptive — 'white' from the pale underside that contrasts with the slate-gray back, visible when the animal breaches or rolls. Its scientific name, Carcharodon carcharias, comes from Greek karcharos ('sharp' or 'jagged') and odous ('tooth'), a nod to its serrated teeth rather than any myth. The word 'shark' itself has murkier roots — possibly from German Schurke ('scoundrel' or 'villain'), possibly from a Mayan word for the fish, borrowed into English around the 1500s when sailors needed a word for something they very much did not want to meet.