Etymograph

English

here be dragons

Here be dragons comes from Latin HC SVNT DRACONES ‘here are dragons’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEHC SVNT DRACONES‘here are dragons’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1962here be dragons

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEHC SVNT DRACONES‘here are dragons’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1962here be dragons

Earliest quotation: 1962, Geoffrey Fletcher, The London Nobody Knows: “Here be dragons in the shape of London landladies,…”

The story

Evidence of the use of this term as a notation on actual historical maps is lacking. The only known appearance of an equivalent phrase in any language on a historical map is of Latin HC SVNT DRACONES (‘here are dragons’), placed on the east coast of Asia, on the Hunt-Lenox Globe, which dates from c. 1510. The phrase is simply a variation on HIC SVNT LEONES ("here are lions"), the classical phrase used by medieval cartographers to denote unknown territories on maps.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Every English word from Latin HC SVNT DRACONES

Today it means

phrase A fanciful notation, commonly attributed to historical maps, held to indicate either the belief that unknown dangers exist in a certain location on the map, or that actual dragons can be found there.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin HC SVNT DRACONES / here be dragons

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