DRACONTOLOGY/drəkɒnˈtɒlədʒɪ/

The study of lake animals unknown to science.

Strictly speaking, dracontology should refer to the study of dragons. It derives from Greek drakon, serpent (plus –ology from a Greek ending that indicated the study of a subject). It’s a kissing cousin to the almost equally rare adjectives draconiform and dracontine, both of which refer to a thing like a dragon. (Draconian, of some law or punishment that is excessively severe, comes instead from Draco, an Athenian legislator of the seventh century BC who made Attila the Hun look like a pussycat.)

However, those enthusiasts who have an interest in this specialist branch of cryptozoology — the study of animals unknown to science — have hijacked the word for the investigation of such fabulous beasts as the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland and the serpent of Lake Memphrémagog on the Quebec-Vermont border. A site devoted to the latter claims that the word was coined by “a monk at the monastery of St Benoit-du-Lac in response to a request by Jacques Boisvert, a Quebec monster enthusiast who needed a name for the specific study of lake monsters”.

That small group of researchers who use dracontology for the study of dragons would wish that the good brother had found a less confusing term. How about cryptolacustribestiology? No? I can’t blame you — it’s almost as long as Nessie herself.

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