dragon [ME] Dragon goes back via Latin to Greek drakōn ‘serpent’, and this was one of the first senses in English in the Middle Ages. In early texts it can be difficult to distinguish the genuine large snake or python (at that time known only from report) from the mythical fire-breathing monster. Before dragon was used, the word for the monster was drake [OE] or firedrake [OE], from the Germanic form of the Latin name draco. Drake as a term for a male duck [ME] is also Germanic but not related. The type of heavy cavalry soldier known as a dragoon [E17th] got his name from the French dragon because they once carried a type of type of gun called a dragoon, so-called because it appeared to breathe fire.