What comes to your mind when you see or hear the word “Dracula”? Probably vampires, right? But what about ruthless Romanian royalty … or dragons?

　　当你看到或听到“Dracula”这个词时，你会想到什么?可能是吸血鬼，对吧?但是会是无情的罗马尼亚皇族，或者龙吗?

　　It’s time for the story of “Dracula”—the word.

　　现在是德古拉的故事的时间。

　　Where does the character “Dracula” come from?

　　德古拉这个人物是从哪里来的?

　　We dress up as vampires on Halloween and watch dramas like True Blood thanks in large part to Irish author Bram Stoker, whose 1897 Gothic novel Dracula helped popularize vampire fantasy—and helped cement the undead, Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula, as the archetype of a vampire in the cultural imagination.

　　我们在万圣节装扮成吸血鬼，看电视剧《真爱如血》，在很大程度上要源于爱尔兰作家布拉姆·斯托克于1897年创作的哥特式小说《德古拉》，它帮助推广吸血鬼幻想，并且帮助集结了特兰西瓦尼亚的亡灵，高贵的德古拉伯爵就是文化想象中的吸血鬼原型。

　　For the character—and name—Dracula, Stoker is believed to have been influenced by a not-so-friendly dude, Vlad the Impaler, who ruled in Wallachia (now apart of Romania) in the 15th century. It’s said that he oversaw the murder of tens of thousands of rivals, criminals, and other enemies. Take a stab at his preferred method of execution…

　　人们认为斯托克对于这个人物以及名字——德古拉的灵感，来自不那么友好的男人——穿刺王弗拉德的影响，弗拉德在15世纪统治瓦拉契亚(现在是罗马尼亚的一部分)。据说他见证了成千上万的对手、罪犯和其他敌人被杀的过程。也尝试了一些他喜欢的执行方式……

　　Where does the name “Dracula” come from?

　　德古拉这个名字是从何而来?

　　Vlad the Impaler was also known as Vlad III Dracula. The name Dracula means “son of Dracul.” In the Romanian language today, dracul means “the devil”—drac is “devil,” ul is“the”—but it is derived from the Latin dracō, “dragon.” (Dragons have been historically associated with Satan, hence the evolution.)

　　穿刺王弗拉德也被称为弗拉德三世德古拉。“德古拉”的意思是“恶魔之子”。在今天的罗马尼亚语中，“dracul”意味着“魔鬼”——drac是“魔鬼”, ul是“the”——但它来源于拉丁文dracō，“龙”。(龙在历史上一直与撒旦联系在一起，因此才有了进化意义。)

　　Now, “son of Dracul” is a reference to Vlad’s father, who was a member of the Order of the Dragon, a Christian society of knights in the manner of Crusaders. The order chose as its patron saint, St. George, famed for his legendary slaying of a dragon.

　　现在，“恶魔之子”指的是弗拉德的父亲，他是龙骑士组织的成员，龙骑士是一个基督教的骑士团体，就像十字军一样。骑士团选择了圣乔治作为它的守护神，圣乔治在传说中因屠龙而闻名。

　　Where does the word dragon come from?

　　龙这个词从哪里来?

　　As you may have guessed, Latin’s dracō is the source of the English dragon, found in English by the 1200s for a “huge serpent” before settling into its form as the mythical, winged,fire-breathing reptile.

　　正如你已经猜到的那样，英文中“dragon”一词来源于拉丁文“dracō”，在12世纪，龙成为一种神话般的、有翼的、能喷火的爬行动物之前，英国人称它为“巨蛇”。

　　Latin’s dracō in turn comes from the Greek drákōn, a kind of serpent whose name may have originally meant “the sharp-sighted one.”

　　拉丁语的dracō又来自希腊语drakōn，这是一种蛇的名字，最初可能意味着“目光敏锐的人。”

　　Some other interesting words are related to dragon, including:

　　还有一些与龙有关的有趣词汇，包括:

　　·draconian, “extremely cruel”

　　·严厉的，“极其残忍”。

　　·drake, not the singer or duck, but an archaic word for “dragon”

　　·龙，不是歌手或鸭子,而是“dragon”的古词。

　　·dragoon,“a mounted infantryman armed with a short musket” but also a verb meaning “coerce”

　　·骑兵&强迫，一个装备短枪的骑兵，同时也是一个动词，意思是“强迫”。

　　·rankle, via French raoncler and draoncler, “to fester”，“from draoncle”, “sore” from Latin’s dracunculus,“little dragon”

　　·发炎，经由法语raoncler和Drancler，“使溃烂”，源于Drancle，“疼痛的”，源于拉丁语dracunculus，“小龙”。

　　·tarragon, which traded Greek, Arabic, Roman, and French hands before entering English

　　·在流传于英国之前，曾出现在希腊语、阿拉伯语、罗马语和法语中。