OOC: Draconomicon

[sythyry]

A bit of OOC stuff about the dragon novel. Only in sythyry 'cause it's a poll.

In this irromantic story about dragons, I want to have words for male and female dragons that sound a bit less clinical than "male" and "female". "Dragoness" is fine for female.

I've been using "drake" for "male dragon".

Which is sort of sensible, 'cause that word (a) is sometimes used for a dragon, and (b) is sometimes used for a male (of another species).

[Poll #1060106]

Comments

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that 'drake' referred specifically to smaller types of dragons (e.g. Sythyry would be a drake, but not Smaugh from The Hobbit).

I've also never liked the word 'dragoness', a rather clumsy melding of a Latin root with a Greek suffix.

Another issue with the two gender signifiers you've chosen is that the words you're choosing for male and female are completely different styles ('drake' comes from Germanic roots and 'dragon' from French.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Exactly. This is why I'm fussing about it.

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Yeah... the 'dragoness' doesn't wasn't quite right. I've seen drake/cow. I don't suggest that. What's the feminine construction of 'draco'?

[mazlynn.livejournal.com]

Draco/Draca maybe? Although that starts to sound more like a title and less like a species indicator. "The Draca of Brisbane will be dining with us tonight". Although, depending on the type of story you're working on, that might work well.