تنين

Meaning

eel, whale, any scaled animal (obsolete)
sea monster
dragon
(normally اَلتِّنِّين (at-tinnīn)) Draco
waterspout

dragon

δράκος

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tin.niːn/

Borrowed from Aramaic תַּנִּינָא / ܬܲܢܝܼܢܵܐ (tannīnā, “sea serpent, monster”), from Akkadian 𒆗𒉌𒈾 (danninu, “netherworld; source of earthquakes; the inaccessible land where the dead remain”), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *dnn/*tnn (“to be mighty, to be strong; to be fortified, to be long lasting, to stay at a place; to rumble, to earthquake, to shake with a booming noise”). Doublet of دَنْدَن (dandan, “mythical monsterous fish that can swallow everything else in the sea, the biggest fish in the sea”); possibly related as well to Egyptian dnwn (/⁠denwen⁠/, “giant serpent whose body was made of fire defeated by the spirit of the dead pharaoh; symbolic of drought, chaos, and destructive natural forces”) attested in the Pyramid Texts of uncertain origin.