dreamer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English drēmer,^[2] formed from Middle English dremen (“to dream”) + -ere,^[3][4] that is, the verb dream with the agent suffix -er.^[5][6] Similar agent nouns are dromer, Träumer (earlier Old High German troumāri), drömmare and drømmer.^[5] The earlier Old English drēamere meant a musician;^[6][7] it was formed on drēam in its sense of joy, mirth or music.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who dreams during sleep: before 1400, in a manuscript of the Cursor Mundi, a poem composed before 1325, where Joseph's brothers say "Lo, here the dreamer comes".^[5][2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 14th century,^[6] Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word was soon used of a person given to visions, fancies and idle speculation: Wyclif's works have it before 1425,^[5][2] and Etymonline dates the sense "idler, daydreamer" to the late 14th century.^[6] It usually implied that the plans were impractical, but it is now also used in a positive sense, of a visionary who has great ambitions.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) gave both senses, first "one who has dreams" and then a man of wild fancies.^[9] The shift belongs to a wider pattern of describing imagination in terms of sleep, found in English since the early 14th century.^[10] From 1869 to 1873 dreamer was also a name for the swallow-winged puffbird.^[5] In slang it has meant morphine,^[11] and in recent American use, often capitalised, it names a person who has lived in the United States without legal status since being brought there as a child and who qualifies for special immigration status.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1400 – a person who dreams in sleep.^[5][2]
• before 1425 – a person given to visions or impractical fancies.^[5][2]
• 1869–73 – the swallow-winged puffbird (now obsolete).^[5]
• 1969 – slang, morphine.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who dreams, especially one who dreams often.^[3][12]
2. A person who lives in a world of fantasy or daydreams; someone whose plans are impractical: He was a dreamer who never finished a project.^[12][3][13]
3. A visionary who conceives and pursues a great aim, such as social or scientific change.^[3][5]
4. (US, informal; often capitalised) A person brought to the United States as a child without legal permission, who meets the conditions for special immigration status.^[12]
5. (archaic) A prophet or seer.^[12][9]

Related words

• dream
• daydreamer

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster