Bibliotheca Polyglotta

Probably from Grk drákōn ‘dragon’ (though with unclear semantics—perhaps lit. ‘dragon wort’, because of the leaves that are spotted like a dragon’s skin, or because, allegedly, it protected from a dragon’s dangerous glance?). The Ar word seems to have been the origin of the European words for ‘tarragon’. The herb probably came to Europe during the time of the Crusades; it was unknown in European antiquity.

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▪ Lokotsch1927, Kluge2002, Rolland2014a: probably via Grk drakóntion ‘dragonwort’ from Grk drákōn ‘dragon’, from vb. dérkesthai ‘to stare at, look, gaze at’, IE *derk- ‘to look, see’. Cf. below Engl Fr dragon .
▪ Asbaghi1988 holds that ṭarḫūn (and var. tarḫān, tarḫūn) is the mPers tarak ‘(kind of) vegetable (dracunculus, dragon wort, tarragon)’. – Little probable (how to explain final -ūn ?)
▪ Another Pers etymology is mentioned in en.wiki (as of 20Sept2015), without however giving any sources: from Pers tare ‘chives’ + suffix -gūn ‘like’. Even less probable than the preceding—there is no Pers tare-gūn for ‘tarragon’, and why should Arabs create a Pers word with a Pers suffix?

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▪ According to one group of sources (Lokotsch1927, Kluge2002), Ar ṭarḫūn is the origin, via ByzGrk tarkhon > mLat tragonia, of most European words for ‘tarragon’, like It targone, mFr targon, Fr targon, estragon (with unetymological prefix), Prov draguneto, estargon, Span taragona, taracontea, Port estragão, Rum tarhon; Engl dragoon, tarragon, Ge Dragun, Esdragon (< Fr); Ru dragun, estragon, Bulg estragon, Chech dragón, estragon, Pol estragon, draganek. – According to Kluge2002, older Ge forms like Dragon, dial. Drachant, Trachant, are from lLat and Romance adaptations of the Grk word. – In any case, following this theory, ṭarḫūn ‘tarragon’ is akin to Engl dragon and its Eur equivalents (Fr dragon, Ge Drache(n), mHGe tracke, trache, drache, dracke, oHGe trahho), which go back to Lat draco (gen. -ōnis) ‘huge serpent, dragon’, from Grk drákōn ‘dragon, serpent, giant seafish’, apparently from Grk drak-, strong aorist stem of dérkesthai ‘to see clearly’, from IE *derk- ‘to see’. Perhaps the literal sense is ‘the one with the (deadly) glance’ –EtymOnline.

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