sea dragon
See also: seadragon
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From sea + dragon; in the mythic sense, some instances represent a learned calque of Old English sǣdraca, compound of sǣ (“sea”) + draca (“dragon”).
Noun
sea dragon (plural sea dragons)
- Various sea animals that are likened to dragons:
- Certain fish:
- A blue sea dragon, a sea slug of species Glaucus atlanticus.
- (UK, dated) An ichthyosaur (dinosaur-age delphine marine reptile)
- (mythology, fantasy) A type of dragon that inhabits oceans.
- 1810, Charles Gould, Encyclopædia Britannica, volume XIX, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., page 68, column 2:
- In the Gentleman's Magazine for the year 1749, we have an account of a ſea-dragon which was ſaid to be taken between Orford and Southwould, on the coaſt of Suffolk[.]
- 1886, Charles Gould, Mythical Monsters, London: W.H. Allen and Co., page 305:
- I may note that there is a bay, not far from this spot, among the Chusan islands, which has long been credited with being the abode of a great sea-dragon, and in passing over which junks take certain superstitious precautions.
- 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 47:
- There were writhing sea-dragons
and monsters slouching on slopes by the cliff,
serpents and wild things such as those that often
surface at dawn to roam the sail-road
and doom the voyage.
- 2011, Joseph Barresi, The Creatures of Arator, volume II, midnightrise, page 210:
- These sea giant see the open vast oceans as all theirs for the taking and they will openly engage in wars with sea dragons, leviathans, and under water races.
- 2013, Judith M. Jacob, The Cambodian Version of the Ramayana, London: Routledge, page 10:
- Rāb(ṇ) gave command to his son, Narātǎk, who, with sea-dragons yoked to his chariot and with bow and arrow in hand, marshalled his officers and forces in urgent haste.
References
- sea dragon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- “sea dragon”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.