Dacians
Modern theories

Since the 19th century, many scholars have proposed an etymological link between the endonym of the Dacians and wolves.

However, according to Romanian historian and archaeologist Alexandru Vulpe, the Dacian etymology explained by daos ("wolf") has little plausibility, as the transformation of daos into dakos is phonetically improbable and the Draco standard was not unique to Dacians. He thus dismisses it as folk etymology.

Another etymology, linked to the Proto-Indo-European language roots *dhe- meaning "to set, place" and dheua → dava ("settlement") and dhe-k → daci is supported by Romanian historian Ioan I. Russu (1967).
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