livescience

- Dragons are among the most popular and enduring of the world's mythological
creatures, believed to have been real for centuries.
- Dragon tales are known in many cultures, from the Americas to Europe, and from India
to China.
- The belief in dragons was based not just in legend but also in hard evidence, or at least
that's what people thought, long ago. For millennia no one knew what to make of the
giant bones that were occasionally unearthed around the globe, and dragons seemed a
logical choice for people who had no knowledge of dinosaurs.
- Dragons are one of the few monsters cast in mythology primarily as a powerful and
fearsome opponent to be slain. They don't simply exist for their own sake; they exist
largely as a foil for bold adventurers.

NewWorldEncyclopedia
- dragon is a mythical creature typically depicted as a large and powerful serpent or other
reptile with magical or spiritual qualities. Although dragons (or dragon-like creatures)
occur commonly in legends around the world, different cultures have perceived them
differently.
- Etymology: The word "dragon" has etymological roots as far back as ancient Greek, in
the verb meaning "to see strong." There were several similar words in contemporary
languages of the time that described some form of clear sight, but at some point, the
Greek verb was fused with the word for serpent, drakon (δράκον). From there it worked
its way to the Latin language, where it was called Draconis, meaning "snake" or
"serpent."
- Dragons generally fit into two categories in European lore: The first has large wings that
enable the creature to fly, and it breathes fire from its mouth. The other corresponds
more to the image of a giant snake, with no wings but a long, cylindrical body that
enables it to slither on the ground. Both of these types are commonly portrayed as
reptilian, hatching from eggs, with scaly bodies, and occasionally large eyes. Modern
depictions of dragons are very large in size, but some early European depictions of
dragons were only the size of bears, or, in some cases, even smaller, around the size of
a butterfly. Some dragons were personified to the point that they could speak and felt
emotions, while others were merely feral beasts.
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