Tattoo Mini Dragon

[Chanh Nguyen]

Hello! A client of mine wants a tattoo in Latin which means "The Mini Dragon" but I told him "The Humble Dragon" or "The Gentle Dragon" would be safer and 'joke-proof'. He hadn't decided yet so I would like translations of these three just in case. I would also love to know the female/neuter version of the translations. Thank you in advance!
P.S: What kind of dragon would you like to be?

 

[Issacus Divus]

There's actually a perfect Latin word for "Mini Dragon", dracunculus.

"The humble dragon" can be draco humilis, and "the gentle dragon" can be draco lenis.

 

[scrabulista]

Is draco masculine or epicene?
I was thinking a possible translation for "feminine mini-dragon" would be dracula. Of course that wouldn't be joke-proof.
It doesn't look like dracuncula is attested.

It appears that in Romanian, the -a ending is masculine:
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=dracula

anguis is "snake," but can be translated "dragon," and it's common gender (either m. or f.)
An attested feminine diminutive is anguilla, although WORDS gives the meaning of that one as "eel," or "slippery fellow" (but still grammatically feminine)

I doubt a grammatically neuter version is attested.

The above draco humilis or draco lenis works for m. or f.

 

[scrabulista]

It appears that draco is indeed masculine and not epicene. The feminine of draco is dracaena.

https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/isidore/12.shtml

(patterned after leaena = "lioness" from leo = "lion.", although leo femina and lea were also used to indicate a lioness).

 

[Issacus Divus]

That is interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen dracaena.

 

[Issacus Divus]

Or leaena.

 

[Bitmap]

That is interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen dracaena.

It doesn't seem to be attested in the literature we have.

Or leaena.

That word occurs more often, e.g. in the story of Pyramus and Thisbe.

 

[scrabulista]

That Isidore of Seville lived c. 556 (560?) - A.D. 636, which is indeed post-classical.
I also came across Femina terribilis draco, at:
https://sourcebook.stanford.edu/sites/all/modules/custom/vm/VersioningMachine/texts/concerning_wicked_woman.html

Which is translated as "the woman is a terrible serpent," rather than "the terrible feminine dragon."
It's from the 11th or 12th century.