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δράκων

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Etymology and origin of the Ancient Greek word δράκων

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Homer, Iliad
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *derḱ-
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek δράκων
Latin draco

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /drá.kɔːn/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈðra.kon/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈðra.kon/[1]

Forms

δρᾰ́κων (drákōn) m (genitive δρᾰ́κοντος, feminine δρᾰ́καινᾰ); third declension[1] Mycenaean Greek da-ra-ko may be this word.[2]

Etymology

It is probably from Ancient Greek δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “to look, see”), from the zero grade of its root seen in the aorist δρακεῖν (drakeîn).[3][2][4] The dragon would then be named after its fixed, paralyzing gaze, “the one who stares”, and the name may first have been a taboo word.[3][2][5] Beekes suggests an original n-stem (compare the feminine δράκαινα (drákaina)) of a root noun like Sanskrit दृश् (dṛ́ś-, “view”), with the stem in ⟨-οντ-⟩ modelled on participles.[3] Fick doubted the link with seeing.[3]

The root is Proto-Indo-European *derḱ- (“to see”).[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a serpent or snake, the same creature as the ὄφις (óphis) of nearby lines.[6][4] A serpent on Agamemnon's breastplate and the snake that devours the sparrows at Aulis are δράκοντες.[6][5]

Semantic evolution

In Hesiod, Pindar and tragedy it is the serpent of myth: the hind part of the Chimaera, the hair of the Gorgons and Erinyes, the guardian of sacred places.[5][4] Aristotle uses it of a real snake, perhaps a water-snake, and sets it against the eagle as its enemy.[4] Epicharmus and Aristotle name a sea-fish, the great weever, after it, and Aratus the constellation Draco.[4][3]

In late Greek it became the dragon-standard of armies and a Parthian corps of a thousand men.[4] In the Septuagint and the Book of Revelation the great dragon is a name of the Devil.[7][8] It was borrowed as Latin draco,[9] the source of the name of the constellation Draco in English.[10] In the Middle Ages it was remade as Byzantine Greek δράκος (drákos), the man-eating monster of Modern Greek folk tales, under the influence of Eastern images.[11][12]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for a serpent.[6][4]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for the monstrous serpents of myth.[4][5][2]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle names a sea-fish with it.[4][2]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Aratus names the constellation Draco.[4][2]
  • 1st century AD – The Book of Revelation calls the Devil the great dragon.[7]
  • 4th century AD – Libanius uses it for the dragon-standard of an army.[4][2]
  • Modern Greek – δράκος (drákos) and Modern Greek δράκοντας (drákondas) continue it, the first for the monster of folk tales.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A serpent, snake.[4][5]
  2. A serpent of myth or of the supernatural world, a dragon.[5][4]
  3. A serpent as an ornament, a shield device or a ship's emblem.[5]
  4. (figurative) A dangerous person.[5]
  5. (astronomy) The constellation Draco.[4]
  6. A sea-fish, the great weever.[4][3]
  7. A serpent-shaped bracelet or necklace.[4]
  8. (late) A dragon standard of an army.[4]
  9. (New Testament) The Devil.[7][13]

Word family

  • δράκαινα (drákaina)
  • δρακοντία (drakontíā)
  • δρακοντίας (drakontíās)
  • δρακόντινος (drakóntinos)
  • δρακόντιον (drakóntion)
  • δρακόντιος (drakóntios)
  • δέρκομαι (dérkomai)
  • Latin draco
  • English Draco

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  13. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Δράκων.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/grc/%CE%B4%CF%81%CE%AC%CE%BA%CF%89%CE%BD. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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