Etymology

here be dragons

Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Latin HC SVNT DRACONES
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromHC SVNT DRACONES“here are dragons”
  2. English todayhere be dragons

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. The phrase is simply a variation on HIC SVNT LEONES ("here are lions"), the classical phrase used by medieval cartographers to denote unknown territories on maps.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.