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URL: https://www.etymonline.com/word/pendragon

⇱ Pendragon - Etymology, Origin & Meaning

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Origin and history of pendragon

pendragon(n.)

"Welsh warlord" (mainly known now via Arthurian romances as the title of Uther Pendragon), late 15c., title of a chief leader in war of ancient Britain or Wales, who were invested with dictatorial powers in times of great danger, from pen "head" (see pen-) + dragon, which figured on the standard of a cohort.

also from late 15c.

Entries linking to pendragon

mid-13c., dragoun, a fabulous animal common to the conceptions of many races and peoples, from Old French dragon and directly from Latin draconem (nominative draco) "huge serpent, dragon," from Greek drakon (genitive drakontos) "serpent, giant seafish," apparently from drak-, strong aorist stem of derkesthai "to see clearly," from PIE *derk- "to see" (source also of Sanskrit darsata- "visible;" Old Irish adcondarc "I have seen;" Gothic gatarhjan "characterize;" Old English torht, Old High German zoraht "light, clear;" Albanian dritë "light").

Perhaps the literal sense is "the one with the (deadly) glance, the one with (paralyzing) sight." The young are dragonets (c. 1300). Fem. form dragoness is attested from 1630s. Obsolete drake (n.2) "dragon" is an older borrowing of the same word, and a later form in another sense is dragoon. Used in the Bible generally for creatures of great size and fierceness, it translates Hebrew tannin "a great sea-monster," also tan, a desert mammal now believed to be the jackal.

a Brythonic (Celtic) word for "head;" common in place names in Cornwall and Wales (such as Penzance; see also pendragon and Pennsylvania).

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c. 1300, "highest in rank or power; most important or prominent; supreme, best, placed above the rest," from Old French chief "chief, principal, first" (10c., Modern French chef), from Vulgar Latin *capum (source also of Spanish and Portuguese cabo, Italian capo, Provençal cap),

early 14c., cheftayne "ruler, chief, head" of something, from Anglo-French chiefteyn, Old French chevetain "captain, chief, leader," from Late Latin capitaneus "commander," from Latin capitis, genitive of caput "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). Now mostly poetic or archaic;

late 13c., penne, "writing implement made from the hard, hollow stem at the base of a feather," from Old French pene "quill pen; feather" (12c.) and directly from Latin penna "a feather, plume," in plural "a wing," in Late Latin, "a pen for writing," from Old Latin petna, pesna,

also tabu, 1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed; prohibited to a certain class," explained in some English sources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark"

early 15c., periode, "a course or extent of time; a cycle of recurrence of a disease," from Old French periode (14c.) and directly from Medieval Latin periodus "recurring portion, cycle," from Latin periodus "a complete sentence," also "cycle of the Greek games," from Greek perio

late 13c. (late 12c. in surnames), from Old North French gardin "(kitchen) garden; orchard; palace grounds" (Old French jardin, 13c., Modern French jardin), from Vulgar Latin *hortus gardinus "enclosed garden," via Frankish *gardo or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germani

Old English win "wine," from Proto-Germanic *winam (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old High German win, Old Norse vin, Dutch wijn, German Wein), an early borrowing from Latin vinum "wine," from PIE *uoin-a-, related to words for "wine" in other southern European languages

"serving to discover or find out," 1821, irregular formation from Greek heuriskein "to find; find out, discover; devise, invent; get, gain, procure" (from PIE *were- (2) "to find;" cognate with Old Irish fuar "I have found") + -istic. As a noun, from 1860. Greek had heuretikos "i

mid-14c., logike, "branch of philosophy that treats of forms of thinking; the science of distinction of true from false reasoning," from Old French logique (13c.), from Latin (ars) logica "logic," from Greek (he) logike (techne) "(the) reasoning (art)," from fem. of logikos "pert

"garment for men, covering the lower body and each leg separately," 1610s, earlier trouzes (1580s), extended from trouse (1570s), with plural ending typical of things in pairs, from Gaelic or Middle Irish triubhas "close-fitting shorts," of uncertain origin. Early recorded use of

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