drove

drove · noun¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*dʰreybʰ-“to drive, push”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*draibō“a drive, push, movement, drove”
3. Old English · inherited fromdrāf“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”
4. Middle English · inherited fromdrove
5. English todaydrove

From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.

drove · verb, verb²

1. Old English · inherited fromdrāf
2. Middle English · inherited fromdrave
3. English todaydrove

From earlier drave, from Middle English drave, draf, from Old English drāf, first and third person singular indicative preterite of drīfan (“to drive”).

Words from the same roots