drag

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dræɡ/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English draggen, probably borrowed from Old Norse draga (“to draw, pull”), or a dialect variant of Old English dragan (“to draw”),^[2][3][4][5] both from Proto-Germanic *draganą,^[3] perhaps from PIE Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to draw, drag on the ground”).^[3] The noun is partly from the verb and partly from Middle Low German dragge (“grapnel”),^[4][6][7] or from Old English drǣge (“dragnet”).^[2][3] Word Origins groups it with draw, draught, dray and possibly drudge.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, a dragnet, 1300–01 in Barnhart, about 1300 in Etymonline;^[2][3] a heavy harrow 1339–40.^[2] The verb, to draw a grapnel along the bottom in search of something, is from the late 14th century in Etymonline,^[3] and to draw or pull something heavy from about 1440 in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

To lag behind is from 1494,^[9] and to drag in a subject figuratively from 1596.^[9] A drag as anything that retards progress is from 1708,^[3] a device to slow a wheel from 1795,^[3] and a boring or annoying person or thing from 1813, perhaps from the idea of something that must be dragged along.^[3][8] A slang sense of a wagon or carriage is from 1755,^[3] and by 1851 it was transferred to a street, as in the main drag.^[3] Women's clothing worn by a man is by 1870, perhaps theatre slang from the feel of long skirts trailing on the floor,^[3][8] and the drag queen is from 1941.^[3] Drag racing (1947) is said to be from thieves' slang drag, a car (1935).^[3] To pull on a cigarette is colloquial from 1919,^[9] and to take someone somewhere reluctantly from 1924.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a dragnet.^[3][2]
• c. 1440 – to pull, haul.^[2][9]
• 1494 – to lag behind.^[9]
• 1708 – something that slows progress.^[3]
• 1813 – a bore.^[3]
• 1870 – women's clothes worn by a man.^[3]
• 1919 – to pull on a cigarette.^[9]
• 1941 – drag queen.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To pull along with effort; to haul.
2. To trail or cause to trail along the ground.
3. To search the bottom of a river or lake with a grapnel or net.
4. To pass slowly and tediously: the hours dragged.
5. (computing) To move an item across a screen by holding down the mouse button.
6. To draw on a cigarette.

Noun

1. Something that slows progress; the force opposing motion through air or water.
2. (informal) A boring or tiresome person or thing.
3. (informal) Women's clothing worn by a man.
4. A pull on a cigarette.

Word family

• draggingly
• draggy
• draghound
• draglift
• dragrope
• dragsville
• drag-and-drop
• draggle

Related words

• dragnet
• draw
• draught
• dray
• drudge
• drag queen

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press