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Language Matters
Year of the Dragon: origins of the mythical beast’s name and imagery, from a fiery beast to an Asian symbol of strength
- The word ‘dragon’ has roots in Proto Indo European, with associations along the way including ‘to see clearly’ and ‘serpent’ or ‘giant seafish’
- Asian dragons symbolise spirituality, power, nobility, rain, good fortune – in contrast with aggressive fire-breathing Western monsters
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Lisa Lim has held professoriate positions at universities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Sydney, and Perth, including as Head of the School of English at the University of Hong Kong.
The English word “dragon” was borrowed from French dragon – a mythical monster, traditionally represented as a gigantic clawed, scaly skinned, winged reptile, sometimes breathing out fire.
This derived from Latin dracōnem (with nominative form draco), which referred to a huge serpent or dragon, from Greek δράκων, drakon, for “serpent, giant seafish”. This came from ancient Greek drak-, the strong stem (indicating a past action without end) of the verb δέρκεσθαι, derkesthai, meaning “to see clearly”, with roots in Proto Indo European *derk “to see”.
Drakon was thus the one with a clear, piercing look.
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In East Asian mythologies, dragons are portrayed as long serpentine creatures, with four legs but no wings – though most are capable of flight.
Dragon-like motifs and statues were found in Neolithic China, and depictions of dragons on artefacts are noted in the earliest ruling Shang and Zhou dynasties.
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The Chinese pictogram for dragon – lùhng in Cantonese, lóng in Mandarin – originally portrayed a serpent with prominent whiskered or fanged mouth, eyes, crown, legs, and tail. The word has origins in Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-bru(ŋ/k, meaning not only “dragon” but also, onomatopoeically, “thunder”.
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