Etymology

dreng

D2R1E1N1G2

Today it means: A kind of feudal free tenant with military duties, mentioned in the Domesday Book. Full definition →

Medieval Latin drengus ← Middle English dreng ← Old English drenġ
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*drangijaz
  2. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*drangī
  3. Old English · derived fromdrenġ“warrior, soldier”
  4. Middle English · derived fromdreng“warrior, retainer”
  5. Medieval Latin · borrowed fromdrengus
  6. English todaydreng

Probably borrowed from Medieval Latin drengus, from Middle English dreng (“warrior, retainer”) or its source, Old English drenġ (“warrior, soldier”), from Proto-West Germanic *drangī, from Proto-Germanic *drangijaz, cognate to Old Norse drengr.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.