dragan

Forms

dragan (third-person singular present dræġþ, past singular drōg, past plural drōgon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *dragan, from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to draw, pull, carry”).^[1][2] The strong verb is shared by Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌽 (dragan), Old Norse draga, Old Frisian draga (also drega), Old Saxon dragan and Old High German tragan.^[3][2][4] In Old Norse and Old English it means “to draw, drag”, while the Old Frisian, Old Saxon and Old High German verbs mean “to carry, bring”.^[2][5]

Kroonen takes it as an intensive verb with the o-grade, *dʰrógʰ-e-, and finds no clear etymology: he puts Ancient Greek τρέχω (trékhō, “to run”) with another Germanic verb, rules out the Slavic words for “road” because their root ends in a different stop, and rules out Latin trahō (“to pull, haul”) because of its initial t.^[2] Wiktionary gives the traditional derivation from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to pull, draw”), noting Kroonen's doubts.^[1] Köbler names that root (Pokorny's *dʰerāgʰ-) with a question mark, and Holthausen compares a Norwegian word for a fishing line and the Slavic words for “road”.^[4][5] Orel instead equates it with Albanian dredh (“to turn, twist”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, written 890×897), which renders Latin “traxerunt me et ego non sensi” as Hi me drogon, & ic hit nyste “they dragged me, and I did not know it”.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb is transitive, “to drag, draw”, of nets, ships and bodies, and it glosses Latin “trahere”; used without an object it means “to go, betake oneself”.^[8][9][4] Toller added a third sense, “to draw out, protract”, from the Rule of Chrodegang, where the monks are to draw out their singing according to the length of the season.^[10][11] The laws use it of dragging dung out of the stalls.^[12]

The word is not common: the DOE Corpus has 33 occurrences in 26 texts, most of them prose.^[7] In Middle English it lived on as Middle English dragen and drawen, whence English draw;^[1][13] Etymonline dates the spelling drauen to about 1200.^[1][13]

Timeline

• 890×897 – Hi me drogon “they dragged me” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[6][7]
• s. x² – Drogon deormodne æfter dunscræfum “they dragged the brave-hearted one along the mountain caves” in Andreas (Vercelli Book).^[14][7][15]
• s. x³/⁴ – Simon Peter drags the net to land in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss of John 21:11.^[16][8]
• 1127 – the bees and the drones in the Peterborough Chronicle's annal for the year.^[8]
• c. 1200 – Middle English drauen.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) to drag, draw, pull along.^[8][11][4]
2. (intransitive) to go, betake oneself.^[8][17]
3. to draw out, protract.^[10][11]

Word family

• ādragan
• ġedragan
• ūtdragan

Descendants

• Middle English dragen (→ English draw; Scots draw)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 99
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 74
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dragan
5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 76
6. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
7. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 210
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 156
10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 762
11. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 87
12. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 55
13. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 704
15. ^ North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary), p. s.v. dragan
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 291
17. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 65