The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*tōdrībaną“to drive apart”
- Old English · inherited fromtōdrīfan“to drive away, repel”
- Middle English · inherited fromtodriven
- English todaytodrive
From Middle English todriven, from Old English tōdrīfan (“to drive away, repel”), from Proto-Germanic *tōdrībaną (“to drive apart”), equivalent to to- + drive. Cognate with Old Frisian todrīva, Middle High German zetrīben (“to drive asunder”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.