Etymologically
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drag

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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

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