draw

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*dʰregʰ-
2. Proto-Indo-European*dʰrógʰ-e-ti
3. Proto-Germanic*draganą
4. Proto-West Germanic*dragan
5. Old Englishdragan
6. Middle Englishdrawen
7. English todaydraw

The verb is derived from Middle English dragen, draghen, draue, drauen, drauhen, drawe, drawen, draȝe, draȝen, draȝhenn (“to drag, pull; to draw (out); to attract; to entice, lure; to lead; to make a drawing; to move, travel; etc.”), from Old English dragan (“to drag, draw”), from Proto-West Germanic *dragan (“to carry, haul”), from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to carry, draw, pull”); further etymology uncertain, often said to be from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull, run”), but possibly from a non-Indo-European substrate root which is also the source of Latin trahō (“to pull, draw; etc.”). Doublet of drag and draught. The noun is derived from Middle English drau, draue (“action of shooting with a bow”), from drauen, drawen (verb). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian drai, dreeg, dreege (“to carry; to wear”), West Frisian drage (“to carry”), Central Franconian draan, drage, droon (“to bear, carry”), Dutch dragen (“to carry; to wear; to transfer”), German tragen (“to bear, carry; to wear; to support”), Low German dregen (“to carry, take”), Luxembourgish droen (“to carry; to hold, support; to wear; to travel; to fruit”), Yiddish טראָגן (trogn, “to carry, to wear; to be pregnant”), Zealandic draege, draoge (“to carry”), Danish drage (“to draw”), Elfdalian drågå (“to drag, draw, pull”), Faroese and Icelandic draga (“to drag, draw, pull”), Gutnish dräga (“to pull”), Norwegian Bokmål dra, drage (“to drag, draw, pull”), Norwegian Nynorsk dra, draga, drage, drågå, dråggå (“to drag, pull; to leave”), Swedish dra, draga (“to draw, pull; to consume; to leave; to run; to steep”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌽 (dragan, “to carry, draw, pull”); also Old Irish droch (“wheel; circlet”), Latin tragō, trahō (“to drag, pull; to trail; to extract; to plunder; to draw out; to protract; to consider, ponder, weigh”), Greek τρέχω (trécho, “to run; to flee; to flow; to execute”), Russian дро́га (dróga, “rail or perch in a cart”), Armenian դուրգ (durg, “to potter’s wheel”).

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 8th c. To pull (someone or something) in a particular direction or manner.
• from 13th c. To move (a body part) in a particular direction.
• from 17th c. Often followed by tight: to pull (something, such as a belt or string) so that it tightens or wraps around something more closely.
• from 13th c. To pull (blinds, a curtain, etc.) open or closed.
• from 17th c. To assume a specific attitude or position, either by pulling in or stretching out one's body or limbs.
• from 14th c. To cause (a body part) to contract or shrink; also, to pull (the mouth, the face or features, etc.) out of shape from emotion, etc.; to distort.
• from 15th c. To construct (a canal, wall, etc.) from one point to another.
• from 19th c. To strike (the cue ball) below the centre so as to give it a backward rotation which causes it to move backwards on striking another ball.