Dracula

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fictional character from Bram Stoker's novel, known for being a vampire who preys on the blood of the living
2. A legendary figure often depicted as a powerful undead being with a unique allure and sinister motives
3. A popular cultural icon representing the archetype of the vampire, associated with immortality and seduction

Etymology: The name belongs to a real fifteenth-century Wallachian prince, Vlad III, who was also called Vlad Țepeș, "Vlad the Impaler." His father, Vlad II, was admitted into the Order of the Dragon, a Hungarian-backed knightly order, and took the nickname Dracul from it. The Romanian "Dracul" meant "the Devil," but the Order's emblem was a dragon, and the nickname seems to have played on that connection. Vlad III then became "Dracula," meaning "son of Dracul," so the vampire's name is literally a patronymic: the son of the dragon, or of the devil. The surname's path to fiction runs through the dragon's Latin and Greek roots. The Order's name and its emblem trace back to "draco," the Latin for dragon, and the word "dracul" was built from that same root by Romanian and its neighbours. The prince's name was therefore a half-hidden reference to a symbol of evil, which made it an apt choice for a novelist. When Bram Stoker chose it for his 1897 novel, he took a real historical figure's name and attached it to a creature from folklore, and the nobleman's cruelty and his dragon-devil identity both became part of the myth.

Synonyms: vampire, bloodsucker, fiend, undead

Antonyms: human, mortal