“Dragon” comes from the Latin draconem, meaning “huge serpent, dragon,” which in turn is from the Greek drakon, “serpent, giant seafish.” The PIE root derk- “to see,” suggests that the literal sense of drakon was “the one with the (deadly) glance.”
The sense of “glance” or “gaze” in the Greek drakonalso appears in the stem drak- of derkesthai, “to see clearly.”
“Dragon” came to English by way of the Old French dragonin the 13th century. “Drake” was also often used interchangably, and the young were known as “dragonets.”
Originally, in Greek and Latin mythology—and even in English—the term could refer to any great serpent, even those that weren’t mythological. For example, in The Iliad(c. 1260–1180 BCE), Agamemnon wears a blue dragon (δράκων drákōn) motif on his sword belt, but it’s just as like that drákōn was used there to refer to a snake.
Thus, the earliest Western mythological dragons were typically legless serpents, with typical dragons adopting legs in the Middle Ages. Most legged dragons at the time had four legs and additional wings, with two-legged dragons known as “wyverns” (from the Old French guivre“snake,” from Latin vipera“viper”). Of course, you’ll still see creatures called wyverns in heraldry and fantasy literature, movies and games today, but both originally and today, wyverns usually look a bit different from what we imagine when we think of dragons, often having two forelegs, wings and a spear-like tail. While four-legged, winged dragons are still common in fiction today, lately there has been a shift toward depicting actual dragons (in Game of Thrones, The Hobbitand other franchises) with two legs, walking on their rear legs and wings in the manner of pterosaurs.
Early Western examples of dragon-like creatures include the firebreathing monster Humbaba from The Epic of Gilgamesh(c. 2100 BCE); Typhon†† of Greek myth (c. 8th-7th century BCE or earlier), who was killed by Zeus; the Norse sea serpent Jörmungandr that was so large that it was able to surround the earth and grasp its own tail, eventually killed by Thor; and the unnamed dragon that Beowulf faces in a battle that kills both of them.
In Asian mythology and artwork†, dragons look a bit different, with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese dragons most often appearing as long, serpentine creatures with four legs and no wings—though many are capable of flight still. Their facial features are also fairly distinctive, almost mammal-like, sometimes with fur, colorful scales, and/or long whiskers. Chinese dragons are the oldest among these, with depictions of dragons appearing on artifacts from the Shang and Zhou dynasties and back to the 16th century BCE. The Chinese name for dragon is pronounced lóngin Mandarin Chinese or lùhng in Cantonese, which is thought by some historians to be an onomatopoeia of the sound of thunder.
Dragon-like creatures also appear in Indian religious myth, notably Vritra—”the enveloper” and the personification of drought—from the early Vedic religion, depicted as a three-headed dragon or snake (c. 1500–c. 600 BCE).
References to dragon-like beasts and serpents also appear in Jewish and Christian religious texts, with mentions of them in the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Job, and Psalm 89, including the Nachash Bare’ach, or “Pole Serpent,” and the sea-demon Rahab.
†Note: I don’t know much about Asian languages and myths, so please correct me if I’m wrong on any of this.
††Typhon is also identified with the Egyptian god of destruction Set, who does not look much like a typical dragon.
The word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th century from Old French dragon, which, in turn, comes from the Latin: draco (genitive draconis) meaning "huge serpent, dragon", from Ancient Greek δράκων, drákōn (genitive δράκοντος, drákontos) "serpent".
Where did the term dragon come from? The English word dragon comes from the Greek word drakōn, which was used originally for any large serpent, and the dragon of mythology, whatever shape it later assumed, remained essentially a snake.
: an imaginary animal usually pictured as a huge serpent or lizard with wings and large claws. 2. capitalized : draco. Etymology. Middle English dragon "dragon," from early French dragun (same meaning), from Latin dracon-, draco "serpent, dragon," from Greek drakōn "serpent" — related to rankle.
And God created the great sea monsters [Hebrew: tannin, meaning dragon, serpent, or sea monster] and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Revelation 12:3 reads, “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.” Later, in Revelation 20:2, the text calls Satan a dragon. It states that the dragon will be bound for a thousand years.
Originally Answered: Of dragons existed, what would likely be their scientific name? Draconis draconis would work. Or Draconis as the genus and some latin epithet for different species. Draco (genus) would've worked, except Linnaeus already used it.
In the Chinese culture, the dragon represents good luck, strength, health and also the male element Yang. The dragon is unique because it is the only mythical creature of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac and babies are born in the year of the dragon more than any other animal.
In real life, probably not. While it makes sense that massive, unidentified bones combined with smaller creatures that look like they could be dragon relatives inspired the legends, we'll have to be satisfied with fictional dragon depictions to fuel the fire of our mythical mentality.
Dragons in Chinese culture symbolize great power, good luck and strength. They represent power and authority, particularly control over typhoons, water, rainfall and floods. Emperors were assumed to have descended from the dragons.
Confronting the Dragon: Symbolizing Inner Darkness
Confronting the dragon in the metaphor represents the courageous act of facing our inner darkness and exploring the depths of our psyche. The dragon embodies our fears, insecurities, and unresolved conflicts that often lie buried within us.
Dragons in the Bible symbolize monsters that oppose God, particularly in the Old Testament. They are often associated with chaos, destruction, and evil. In the New Testament, dragons are portrayed as adversaries of the devil.
The word dragon derives from the Greek δράκων (drakōn) and its Latin cognate draco. Ancient Greeks applied the term to large, constricting snakes. The Greek drakōn was far more associated with poisonous spit or breath than the modern Western dragon, though fiery breath is still attested in a few myths.
Old Norse dreki and Old English draca mean "dragon, sea serpent or sea monster" and are in turn derived from Proto-Germanic *drakō, an early borrowing from Latin draco "huge serpent or dragon".
It's not clear when or where stories of dragons first emerged, but the huge, flying serpents were described at least as early as the age of the ancient Greeks and Sumerians.
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