Etymology

drive

D2R1I1V4E1

Today it means: To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle). Full definition →

Middle English dryven ← Old English drīfan ← Proto-West Germanic *drīban
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*dʰreybʰ-“to drive, push”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*drībaną“to drive”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*drīban
  4. Old English · derived fromdrīfan“to drive, force, move”
  5. Middle English · derived fromdryven
  6. English todaydrive

From Middle English dryven, from Old English drīfan (“to drive, force, move”), from Proto-West Germanic *drīban, from Proto-Germanic *drībaną (“to drive”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognates Cognate with Scots drive (“to drive”), Yola dhreeve, dhrive, dreeve, drieve, drive (“to drive”), North Frisian driiv, driiw, driwe (“to drive”), West Frisian driuwe (“to drive; to float”), Alemannic German triibe (“to drive”), Dutch drijven (“to drive, push”), German treiben (“to drive, push, propel”), Low German drieven (“to drive, drift, push”), Luxembourgish dreiwen (“to drive, propel”), Yiddish טרײַבן (traybn, “to drive”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål drive (“to drive, propel”), Icelandic drífa (“to drive”), Norwegian Nynorsk driva, drive (“to drive, move; to propel; to run”), Swedish driva (“to drive, compel; to drift; to run”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (dreiban, “to drive”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*drībaną all →

Proto-Indo-European*dʰreybʰ- all →

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.