The word dragon conjures up all sorts of monster images, many derived from movies. But the word itself also has a fascinating story to tell, beginning in ancient myths and extending to modern figurative uses of the term.
A dragon is a mythical monster usually depicted as a huge fire-breathing lizard or snake with batlike wings and a barbed tail.
In the ancient Middle East, the dragon symbolized evil. Greeks and Romans, too, usually represented dragons as evil creatures, but sometimes as helpful powers who understood the secrets of the earth. In Christianity the dragon symbolized sin and paganism, and Christian literature and pictorial arts showed saints, such as St. George, triumphing over dragons.
Many cultures, however, used the dragon as a symbol of their strength. In China it served an an emblem of the royal family. Ancient Scandinavians carved dragons on the prows of their ships. In medieval England, dragons were depicted on royal ensigns.
The word dragon entered Middle English in the 13th century as a borrowing from Old French dragon (“dragon”), which goes back through Latin dracon-, a combining form of draco (“serpent, dragon”), to Greek drakon (“serpent”). The word is akin to Greek derkesthai (“to see, look at”), Sanskrit darsayati (“he causes to see”), and other Indo-European words with the basic meaning of “seeing.”
Reflecting its Latin and Greek background, the word dragon entered English with two meanings. In fact, etymologists point out that in many early quotations, distinguishing the two senses is often difficult.
One meaning was simply a large serpent or snake. That sense was recorded by about 1220.
Here is a later, Modern English example of that usage: “Why should not these dragons have been simply what the Greek word dragon means-what…the superstitions of the peasantry in many parts of England to this day assert them to have been-‘mighty worms,’ huge snakes” (1849, Oxford English Dictionary).
The serpent use of the word dragon is now regarded by most dictionaries as archaic or obsolete.
The other early meaning of the word was the mythical monster. That sense was recorded by about 1225.
Here is a Modern English example of that usage: “In shape, as the natives picture it, the dragon is not unlike a huge lizard, with long-nailed claws, and a flat long head…possessed of horns and a long mane of fire” (1895, Oxford).
The monster sense of dragon is, of course, still the primary use of the word.
However, the word has also spun off many secondary uses.
The King James Version of the Bible, for example, uses the word dragon frequently for multiple purposes. Among its meanings are land monster (Isa. 13: 22), sea monster (Isa. 27:1), and Satan himself (Rev. 20:2).
Since at least the 18th century, dragon has been a colorful epithet for a violent, combative, or very strict person. Further extended, the word means something or someone formidable.
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The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.
