DRAGOON

PRONUNCIATION: (druh-GOON)

MEANING: verb tr.: To force someone to do something; coerce.

ETYMOLOGY: From French dragon (dragon, to dragoon). Earliest documented use: 1622.

NOTES: This is a good example of how the meaning of a word evolves from an object to a person to an action. Originally, the word dragoon referred to firearms, either from the fact that they breathed fire like a dragon or from the shape of the pistol hammer. Eventually, it began to be applied to a cavalryman armed with a carbine. Today the term is a verb for forcing someone to do something against their will.
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