Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Etymology of the dracolion, dragonne, dragony, and lion-dragon

The dragonne, a monster appearing in some monster manuals and the Tome of Horrors, is not a unique invention of the game. Its name actually originates from medieval heraldry...

The name "dragonne" originally derives from the French lyon dragonné. This translates to "lion-dragon" and refers to a heraldic creature with the forequarters of a lion and the hindquarters of a dragon or wyvern. The name lyon dragonné was also shorted to just dragonné, which is presumably why the monster in the game has that name (without the acute accent). The noun dragonné eventually became an adjective denoting that a heraldic creature had the hindquarters of a dragon and the forequarters of another creature, or applied to a wyvern with the head and/or tail of another creature. The adjectival dragonné was later anglicized to "dragony."

Addendum 8/16/2018: The adjective dragony may be analyzed as equivalent to dragon +‎ -y, and thus synonymous with dragonish.

This is not the only name: I found a couple of synonyms. I did find one story from the 19th century which used the phrase "the lion wyvern or flying-serpent" while listing a variety of monsters. I have also seen the neologism "dracolion" (portmanteau of dragon and lion) used to name hybrids of lion and dragon that appear in modern art.

Addendum 8/16/2018: The "lion-serpent" is an unrelated creature, aka chnoubis and variant spellings thereof. It appears in Gnosticism as a symbol of the demiurge Yaldabaoth, who is sometimes depicted as a lion-headed octopus.

Gallery

Fontaine Saint-Michel RHS Winged Dragon statue

"chimera" ©2015 ☆ ña ñu ca ☆

"Chimera's Reference" ©2013 TheMoonlitPrince

"Chnoubis. To ride the beast" ©2015 hermanubis93

Dragonne ©2010 ProdigyDuck

Lion-dragon (Period)

"Bellerophon riding Pegasus and the Chimera"

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