*drakō

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *drakō for Proto-West Germanic,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dracō (“dragon”),^[1][3] which is from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “dragon”).^[4] Ringe and Taylor describe the Latin word as late, and often the name of a military banner.^[1] Green thinks it possible that it was borrowed in the context of Roman military standards, since the dragon was used on Roman battle standards from the 2nd century AD; although the word was later used in Christian texts, it must have been borrowed into Old High German earlier, before the Second Sound Shift, but its link with the Roman army remains a hypothesis.^[5] Köbler sets up a Germanic *drako.^[6] In Old English *drakō became *drækā and then draca.^[7]

Morphology

An n-stem.^[1] The Old English and Old High German nouns are weak masculines.^[4][8]

Evidence

The word is attested as Old English draca and Old High German trahho,^[1] and Old High German also has trakko.^[9] Old Dutch has it only as an element of a place name, ⟨Holedraca⟩, recorded in 1133.^[10] Old Norse dreki owes its e to palatal umlaut, triggered in the nominative singular by a velar followed by a front vowel and levelled through the paradigm.^[1][7]

Competing analyses

Ringe and Taylor count the word as one of two nouns that might have been borrowed while Proto-Northwest Germanic was still a dialectal unity, as *drakō̄, the source of Old Norse dreki and of Proto-West Germanic *drakō, and in their lists of Old English sound changes they label it, with a query, as Proto-Northwest or Proto-West Germanic.^[1][7] They add that it is not clear whether Proto-Northwest Germanic lasted late enough for such a loan, and that borrowing into Old Norse from an early dialect of Proto-West Germanic seems at least as likely.^[1]

Meanings

1. dragon^[7][2]

Old English also used the word for "devil".^[3]

Reflexes

• Old English: draca (“dragon, devil”)^[3]
• Old Dutch: -draca (“dragon”)^[10]
• Old High German: trahho (“dragon”)^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 136
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *drakō
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. draca
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. draca
5. ^ Green, D. H. (1998), Language and History in the Early Germanic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 234
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *drako
7. ^ a b c d Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 192
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. trahho
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. trakko
10. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. drako