Dragon Etymology
Chapter III
Here is the last post of the etymology series is also my favorite one. Because the story behind is very beautiful.
There are two different Turkish words to describe the dragon. The first one is “ejderha” which originated from the Persian word “Ajdahak or Ajdaha”. Ajdahak comes from the name of the demonic king named Aži Dahāka, who is also known as Zahhāk or Zahāk in Persian mythology. This cruel king is also mentioned in Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism, which is accepted as one of the oldest religions (dating back to 3000 BC). “Aži” means snake or dragon Avestan language. Although the meaning of “Dahāka” is uncertain, it is thought that it might correspond to “foreign” or “gigantic”. According to the legend, the King Aži Dahāka has two snake and dragon-like bones on his shoulders. And to relieve the pain of these bones, the king sacrifices two people every day and applies their brains on his shoulders. What an interesting story! I’ll go into more detail about the story in another post. Now let’s come to the second word for dragon in Turkish.
Evren (or Evran, Ebren) is corresponding to Ejderha (Eng: dragon) in Turkey Turkish. In Turkish mythology, it was thought that the world was rotated by one or more dragons. This dragon was also called “Eviren (Eng: rotator)”. Later, the letter “i” in the word “Eviren” dropped and the word became Evren (Eng: universe). Moreover, Evren (universe) is a dragon, and just like a dragon, the universe is also large and superhuman. It is impossible to understand all its nature with the human mind. Just like the universe, the dragon is also evolving (transforming) growing and expanding.
Finally, according to another not-so-known approach, the word “Evren” comes from the word “ebher” (Mongolian: ever), which means horn in Ancient Mongolian. (Turkish Discourse Dictionary: Turkish Mythology Encyclopedic Dictionary) Considering the fact that the horned dragons are a common belief and the origins of the Turks is very close to Mongolians, it seems like a not-so-distant possibility.
- Türk Mitolojisinde Ejderha, Harun Duman, Uluslararası Beşeri Bilimler ve Eğitim Dergisi (IJHE), Cilt 5, Sayı 11, S. 482 – 493.
- Avrasya kültürünün mitolojik kökleri: Türk kültüründe ‘ejder’in ‘evren’selliği, Mehmet Ulusoy, Aydınlık
- Ejderha, Wikipedia
- Zahhak, Wikipedia
- эвэр, Wiktionary