An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Drache
Drache, masculine (with a Middle German d), ‘dragon, kite, termagant,’ from Middle High German trache, (Upper German tracke). Old High German trahho (Upper German traccho), masculine; the Modern High German initial sound is to be regarded in the same way as in dichten (compare Middle Low German and Middle Dutch drâke). The word was naturalised in Germany before the 8th century; as in the case of the bird Greif, ‘griffin,’ the dragon as a fabulous beast furnished material for the imaginative faculty of the Germans, and supplanted the native mythological creations. The English loan-word is equally old — Anglo-Saxon draca, English drake (in drake-fly or dragon-fly). The word is based on Latin (Romance) draco (dracco), which again is derived from Greek δράκων, ‘dragon,’ literally ‘the sharp-sighted animal’ (from δέρκομαϊ). English dragon, is of recent Romance origin (French dragon).