Latinisms and popular etymology: The case of the name Dracula
Abstract
This article aims to conduct an analysis of the etymology of the name Dracula, which refers not only to the famous vampire from Bram Stoker’s novel, but also to Vlad III the Impaler, the ruler of Wallachia. Indeed, the name can be analyzed as drac + -ul + -a, and it can be traced back to the Latin draco, meaning ‘dragon, large (mythological) serpent’. In contrast to an earlier interpretation of the name as ‘the devil’, based on Rom. drac ‘devil’, this analysis provides several elements to support an interpretation of the name Dracula as ‘the son of the dragon’, being a Latinism from Latin draco. This research also takes into account an element such as unexpectedness in linguistic inquiry, with a focus on cases of folk etymology.
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