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Western Dragon Essay

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Although nearly every culture has the concept of dragons represented in its mythology or art, the idea of what a dragon looks like, how it behaves, or the purpose it serves varies drastically. Does the dragon fly—if so does it have wings or does it fly through other means? Does it breathe fire? Ice? Does it bring good luck, energy, or protection? Or does a dragon instill fear and bring harm and destruction? What is their intelligence level? The characteristics of a dragon can be determined based on whether or not we look at western dragons or eastern dragons. However, what’s even more interesting than the different variations of dragons that have been around for centuries, is the etymology of the term and how it has changed over time in meaning …show more content…

The French took the word from the Latin word dracōn (serpent) which was derived from the Greek form δράκων (dráko:n meaning “serpent”) (“dragon, n.1”). δράκων usually referred to the term δρακ (drak), an aorist stem of δέρκεσθαι (derkesthai) which means “to see clearly” (“dragon, n.1”). Following the Greek root and definition further back, dragon also has ties to Sanskrit (derk meaning “to see”), Old English (torht meaning “bright”), Old Saxon (toroht), and Old High German (zoraht meaning “bright”) (“Dragon,” Webster’s). This means that the roots of dragon can be traced back to early Indo-European tongues and possibly even to Proto-Indo-European. So how did we get from toroht meaning “bright,” to dragon as we know it …show more content…

6). While dragons were known to protect what is theirs and to be jealous over others’ gold, women (and occasionally men) are also known to protect their own and to be jealous of women of higher status or women their men find attractive (or men their wives find attractive). However, according to The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, this particular definition has slowly transitioned to just mean “an ugly or unpleasant woman” (“Dragon” def. 3). “Why did you invite that dragon to the party?” is an example of how this new definition could be used. According to Partridge, there are other uses of dragon in slang including a specific way of smoking heroin (“dragon” def. 2) and also referring to a penis (“dragon” def. 1). This variation seems to have come about from the East Yiddish term shmok meaning “penis” which was derived from the Old Polish term smok meaning “grass snake, dragon” (Harper). Though this variation of slang could also have been derived from the German word schmuck which means jewels or jewelry. Men often speak of “the family jewels,” particularly when in pain, and this connection could possibly be tied back to

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