tarragonn.

Etymology: Given in 1538–48 as the English for medieval Latin tragonia and tarchon: compare 16th cent. French targon (Rabelais, Cotgrave 1611), Italian taracone, tarcone (Florio 1598, 1611), Spanish taragontia, -goncia (Matthioli 16th cent., Percival, Minsheu). Tarchon appears in the Latin version of Symeon Sethus De Cibariis (Basle 1538), representing Byzantine Greek ταρχών. Sethus compiled from Arab sources, and his ταρχών represented Arabic ṭarkhōn (in Ibn Beithar, Avicenna, Razi), altarcon in Gerard of Cremona, a1187; according to Arabic lexicographers a foreign word: some think < Greek δράκων (Devic), by an early association, similar to what is found in the 16th cent., with the Greek δρακόντιον, -οντία (Hippocrates, Dioscorides), the name of Arum Dracunculus. The two plants were included by Matthioli, 1565, under Δρακοντία , Dracunculus , the Tarragon being distinguished as Hortensis Dracunculus ; he also gives, as including both, Italian dragontéa , Spanish taragontia , French serpentine , all originally names of Arum Dracunculus. This association is commemorated in the botanical names Artemisia Dracunculus and Arum Dracunculus (now Dracunculus vulgaris), as well as in 16–17th cent. applications of the name dragon n.¹, dragons n. The 16th cent. herbalists' Latin Tragonia, and the Spanish estragon, Portuguese estragão, French estragon, are all derived < tragon, targon, tarchon; the 16th cent. Spanish taragoncia and modern Spanish taragona show the nearest relationship to the English name.