drake

Etymology 1

table From Middle English drake (“male duck, drake”), from Old English *draca, abbreviated form for Old English *andraca (“male duck, drake”, literally “duck-king”), from Proto-West Germanic *anadrekō (“duck leader”). Cognate with Low German drake (“drake”), Dutch draak (“drake”), German Enterich (“drake”). More at annet.

noun

1. A male duck.

Etymology 2

table From Middle English drake (“dragon; Satan”), from Old English draca (“dragon, sea monster, huge serpent”), from Proto-West Germanic *drakō (“dragon”), from Latin dracō (“dragon”), from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “serpent, giant seafish”), from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “I see clearly”), from Proto-Indo-European *derḱ-. Compare Middle Dutch drake and German Drache. Doublet of dragon.

noun

1. A mayfly used as fishing bait.
2. (poetic) A dragon.
   Clay caught sight of the drake's wing outlined against the rising flames as it swept low over the desert. 2016, Anthony Ryan, The Waking Fire: Book One of Draconis Memoria
3. (historical) A small piece of artillery.
4. A fiery meteor.
   The moon’s my constant Mistresse & the lowlie owle my morrowe. The flaming Drake and yͤ Nightcrowe make c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)
5. A beaked galley, or Viking warship.