here be dragons love

here be dragons

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • phrase A fanciful notation, commonly attributed to historical maps, held to indicate either the belief that unknown dangers exist in a certain location on the map, or that actual dragons can be found there.
  • phrase By extension, used to indicate that which is unknown or uncertain, particularly if it seems to carry some type of risk.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Evidence of the use of this term as a notation on actual historical maps is lacking. The only known appearance of an equivalent phrase in any language on a historical map is of Latin HC SVNT DRACONES ("here are dragons"), placed on the east coast of Asia, on the Hunt-Lenox Globe, which dates from c. 1510.

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