Etymology

drudge

D2R1U1D2G2E1

Today it means: A person who works in a low servile job. Full definition →

Middle English druggen ← Old English *dryċġan ← Proto-West Germanic *druggjan
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*dʰrewgʰ-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*drugjaną
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*druggjan
  4. Old English · inherited from*dryċġan
  5. Middle English · inherited fromdruggen
  6. English todaydrudge

From Middle English druggen, perhaps from Old English *dryċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *druggjan, from Proto-Germanic *drugjaną, a denominative built to a lost noun *drugjaz (preserved in Old English Dryċġhelm), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ-; compare Old English drēogan (“to do; to suffer”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*dʰrewgʰ- all →

dreedreichdrightdrighten

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.