dromedary

Etymology

From Middle English dromedari, dromedarie (“dromedary; any camel”) [and other forms], from Old French dromedaire, from Late Latin dromedārius (“kind of camel”), from Latin *dromadārius, from dromas, dromadis (“dromedary”) + -ārius (suffix forming nouns denoting agents of use). Dromas and dromadis are derived from Ancient Greek δρομᾰ́ς (dromás, “running; dromedary”), an ellipsis of δρομὰς κάμηλος (dromàs kámēlos, “running camel”), from δρόμος (drómos, “race, running; race course, track”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *drem- (“to run”).

noun

1. The single-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius).
   The duke in his schelde and dreches no lengere, / Drawes hym a dromedarie, with dredfulle knyghtez; … (please add an English translation of this quotation)] [c. 1400, Edmund Brock, editor, Morte Arthure, or The Death of Arthur: Edited from Robert Thornton’s MS.[…], new edition (in Middle English), London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by N[icholas] Trübner & Co.,[…], published 1871, lines 2940–2941, page 87
   The Dromedarie, Camell, Horſe, and Aſſe, / For loade and carriage doth a Sheepe ſurpaſſe: … 1630, John Taylor, “Taylors Pastorall, being Both Historicall and Satyricall.[…]”, in All the Workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-poet.[…], London: […] Iames Boler; […], →OCLC, page 52; republished in The Works of John Taylor the Water Poet[…] (Publications of the Spenser Society; no. 2), [Manchester]: […] Spenser Society, 1868, →OCLC, page 536, column 2
   [T]he Dromedarie … who is marvellous ſwift, and will run an hundred miles in a day; but the Germanes call a dull and ſlow man a Dromedary, … 1650, Edward Leigh, “Δρόμος [Drómos]”, in Critica Sacra in Two Parts: The First Containing Observations on All the Radices, or Primitive Hebrevv Words of the Old Testament, in Order Alphabetical. […] The Second Philologicall and Theologicall Observations upon All the Greek Words of the New Testament, in Order Alphabetical.[…], 3rd edition, London: […] Thomas Underhill[…], →OCLC, page 74, column 2
   Here we alighted, drank ourſelves, and gave our dromedaries to drink as much as they would; then we filled all our veſſels, made on purpoſe for carriage, and took in a much greater proportion of water than we had done proviſions. 1765, [Simon Berington], The Adventures of Sig. Gaudentio di Lucca.[…], Glasgow: […] James Knox,[…], →OCLC, page 66
2. Any swift riding camel.
3. (medicine, dated, attributively) Referring to a biphasic clinical course of poliomyelitis, typically occurring in children, characterized by a minor illness, followed by an asymptomatic period of several days before the onset of a major illness involving the central nervous system.
   The untreated cases have been arranged in three groups according to the clinical course. The first group, called the dromedary group, shows the curious phenomenon of two different periods of illness with an interval of well-being. […] Because of the two distinct groups or humps of symptoms, the analogy to the arrangement of the dromedary’s back was taken to express the type figuratively. 1917-04-21, George Draper, “Acute Poliomyelitis: Early Diagnosis and Serum Therapy”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 68, number 16, Chicago, Ill., →DOI, page 1153