Etymology

draft

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Today it means: A current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle. Full definition →

Middle English draught ← Old English *dreaht ← Proto-West Germanic *drahti
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*drahtuz“a pulling, drawing”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*drahti
  3. Old English · inherited from*dreaht
  4. Middle English · inherited fromdraught
  5. English todaydraft

A phonetic spelling of draught (compare laughter), from Middle English draught, draght (“that which is pulled; that which is drawn up, a design”), from Old English *dreaht, *dræht, from Proto-West Germanic *drahti, *drahtu, from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz (“a pulling, drawing”). Cognate with Dutch dracht, German Tracht, Icelandic dráttur. By surface analysis, draw + -t.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishdraught all →

draught

Old English*dreaht all →

draught

Proto-Germanic*drahtuz all →

draught

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.