drake meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

drake

noun

/dɹeɪk/

Etymology From Middle English drake (“male duck, drake”), from Old English *draca, abbreviated form for Old English *andraca (“male duck, drake”, literally “duck-king”), from Proto-West Germanic *anadrekō (“duck leader”). Cognate with Low German drake (“drake”), Dutch draak (“drake”), German Enterich (“drake”). More at annet.

A male duck (animal).

A drake belonging to a chemist, having drunk water out of a copper vessel which had contained phosphorous, continued its amorous activities until death.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 202:

Derived terms: drakelet, drakeling, drakeskin, duck on drake, ducks and drakes, sheldrake, wood drake

drake

noun

Etymology From Middle English drake (“dragon; Satan”), from Old English draca (“dragon, sea monster, huge serpent”), from Proto-West Germanic *drakō (“dragon”), from Latin dracō (“dragon”), from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “serpent, giant seafish”), from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “to see clearly”). Compare Middle Dutch drake and German Drache. Doublet of dragon.

7 senses

1dragon
2lesser draconic creature
3beaked galley, or Viking warship
4small piece of artillery
5a fiery meteor (variously known as fiery serpents and…
6mayfly
7a mayfly used as fishing bait

Poetic dragon

Clay caught sight of the drake's wing outlined against the rising flames as it swept low over the desert.2016, Anthony Ryan, The Waking Fire: Book One of Draconis Memoria:

Fantasy Poetic, Not universal lesser draconic creature

beaked galley, or Viking warship

Historical small piece of artillery

Two or three shots, made at them by a couple of drakes, made them stagger.1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater:

a fiery meteor (variously known as fiery serpents and dragons in many cultures)

The moon’s my constant Mistresse & the lowlie owle my morrowe. The flaming Drake and yͤ Nightcrowe makec. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

mayfly

a mayfly used as fishing bait

Derived terms: earthdrake, eastern green drake, firedrake, green drake, icedrake, nithedrake, proto-drake, seadrake, sea drake