Dragoon

Dragoon is a verb that means to coerce into something. The similarity of our word of the day with the word ‘dragon’ is no coincidence. Dragoon is French for Dragon and was originally named for the giant muskets used by cavalry soldiers. Those muskets shot what must have seemed like fire to many people — kind of like a dragon. In time, the word came to mean any attempt at forcing someone into something as a soldier at war might. Kristy had to dragoon me into taking a trip to the amusement park and I’m glad she did. That gigantic roller coaster wasn’t something I would usually do on my own, but it was great fun.