so here's my question

[truepenny]

If a female fox is a vixen, a female horse is a mare, a female manatee is a sow (they are sows, aren't they?), and a female bird is a hen ...

then what is a female dragon?

I've decided (for reference in contemplating this question) that baby dragons are kits (no, they are not dragonets, thank you very much).

Oh, yeah, and:

bookkeeping
new necklace story: 756 words

Stopping for the nonce in order to eat dinner.

Comments

[redbird]

I'd say that a female dragon is a dragon. (If a male horse is a colt, and a male walrus is a bull, then what is a male dragon?) But by analogy, if a baby dragon is a kit, then a female dragon might be a vixen.

[redbird]

um, make that stallion, not colt--too much exposure to the Triple Crown, and not much other horseracing.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

1. the male dragon is going to have to take his cue from the female dragon.

2. the context is a quasi-Edwardian naturalist giving a small impromptu lecture on the reproductive habits of the genus Draco. So there have to be words for male and female.

3. I was going to call the female dragons vixens, but then it looked peculiar. I may do it anyway, because "vixen" is just not a word that one gets to use often enough.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

A respectable maiden dragon?

A dragoness? But not if you don't want dragonets. Hmm.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/painting/Animalbabies.shtml

seems to have quite a good list of names that might help, and less cute but more extensive:

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/Zoology/AnimalMorphology/MaleFemalenames/MaleFemalenames.htm

One I wouldn't have thought of, she-dragon?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Those are very cool.

Still dithering. I like using the word for foxes, except that those words are so specialized (dog-fox, vixen) that it begins to look as if there's some sort of connection between dragons and foxes in this world, which there isn't.

Ponder.

Gender terminology

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I would tend to call a male dragon a bull. By extension, a female would be a cow. (I think that's how it works with alligators and whales, so it seems appropriate.)

A male falcon is a tercel, if that helps, and they're smaller than the females. *g*

I think it depends on what the primary animal motif of your dragon is. Or if they're talking dragons, let them pick their own word.

Also, think of the fun you can have with collective nouns. An inflammation of dragons?

Great question! Hoot!

Re: Gender terminology

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

But I can't call a dragon a cow!

I'm sorry. I just can't.

And, now, these aren't sapient dragons. Extremely smart and specially evolved predators, but no language skills.

Maybe boar and sow would work.

Re: Gender terminology

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

You can call a whale a cow, but not a dragon? *g*

Actually, I like boar and sow. Or even bull and sow. Especially if the babies are kits. A mindless consistency is the small foolishness of hobgoblins and all that.

Re: Gender terminology

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I'm leaning toward "sow" at the moment. It's the word for a female bear, after all, and that's respectable.

So, in dragon reproduction, the sow has a clutch of kits. I like it. :)

And male dragons are boars. That's fine. They can live with that.

[c-elisa.livejournal.com]

I can't think of a term that sounds right for a female dragon, but I think drake works OK for a male one. Would it work to have dragon be both generic and female, and drake specifically male?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I belatedly remembered drake for male dragon, but I think I got that from someone else (Hambly? Yolen? somebody, anyway). And as I said in my reply to redbird, the particular social context in which the question has arisen means that I really need a specific word for female dragons.

*sigh*

It's the problems I create for myself that are the worst. :)

[katallen.livejournal.com]

Well drakes go with hens (or ducks ::grins::)... but that might leave you with chicks.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

If baby dragons are kits, like baby cats, then maybe you can follow a cat analogy. So a baby dragon is a kit, a female dragon is a dragon and a male dragon is a tom--well, 'tom' doesn't work, but you could maybe substitute another word that keeps the pattern?

Alternatively, there's the swan model--cob for male and pen for female?

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

A female cat is a queen. That seems more appropriate to a dragon than 'cow' or 'sow.'

Re:

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

Ah--I didn't know that. I like it! I nominate for queen dragons...

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Since McCaffrey has given 'queen' dragons a particular meaning maybe the general term could be something similar, such as Diva or Czarina; I like 'Empress' and 'Emperor' for female and male dragons.

Re:

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

Argh--it's been so long since I read McCaffrey I'd forgotten that! Yes, 'empress' and 'emperor' do sound good.

[infinitemonkeys.livejournal.com]

how about "dam"? Drake, dam, kits. My dictionary says you use it of four-legged animals.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

That feels right to me.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

A female dragon is a dragon.

A male dragon is a nuisance...

[vass]

I have this temptation to say that a male dragon is a drander.

[valtyr]

A female cat is actually a queen, which leaves you all Anne McCaffrey-esque
I know Lady Ramkin went into some detail on dragon names in Guards! Guards!

And perhaps buck and doe would work? Although then they'd have to calve, really.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

So she does.

Males are pewmets, cocks, snoods, and cobbs. Females are hens and dams.

On the Discworld, anyway. *g*

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

Dragoness is simplest - but how about calling a female dragon a virago? That is exclusively female, and it had a positive meaning once upon a time, and it still means fearsome.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like that.

It's not right for this story, in which the dragons are (bizarrely enough) not the point, but if I ever write anything with the other kind of dragon, the females will be viragos. Possibly Viragos, as in (*thinks frantically for a good dragon-y name) the Virago Samothrace. Because it sounds like the sort of thing that would have the double usage "lady" does in English.

At the moment, there's no such story brewing, but you never know.

Thank you!

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

But, of course, it's not my idea, no matter how enthusiastic I am about it. So if you've got a use for it yourself, please. Go ahead.

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

I have no dragon-related plans, I just read your post, and the word popped up in my head.

Consider it yours. :)

Male/Neuter Dragons

[dmsherwood53.livejournal.com]

Think there is a recent Moorcock Elric Short were he mocks the common folk who think all dragons are Male and therefore Neuter-in ther sence of being above sex