dribble

Etymology

It is formed from English drib + -le, the frequentative of the obsolete verb drib (recorded from the 1520s),^[2][3][4][5] which is a variant of drip,^[3][6][7][8] apparently an imitative alteration of drip or drop.^[2] The verb drip goes back to Old English dryppan and Proto-Germanic *drupjaną.^[3] Some uses were influenced by drivel.^[2][9][5] For the football sense, Hoad and the Shorter Oxford compare Dutch dribbelen (“to toddle, trip”).^[10][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In archery, to shoot an arrow short of or wide of the mark: 1567, in Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, a sense also of drib and obsolete after the early 17th century.^[2][11][5] The sense of letting something fall in drops is recorded from 1589,^[2][9] and Etymonline dates it to the 1580s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense of flowing in a thin stream or trickling dates from 1599,^[2][3] and dribbling at the mouth from 1673;^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as to fall in drops, or to throw down in drops, and quoted Swift.^[12] The noun, a trickle or small drop, followed in the late 17th century.^[2][13] The sporting sense began in football in 1863: to move the ball along with short quick touches of the feet.^[2][3][9] It passed to billiards in 1873 and to American basketball in the 1890s, where the ball is bounced with the hand.^[2][3][9] In 18th-century gamblers' slang to dribble the dice was to let them slide gently from the box so as to cheat.^[14] In dialect a dribble was a field drain of broken stones through which water trickles.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1567 – in archery, to shoot short of the mark (obsolete by 1634).^[2]
• 1589 – to let something fall in drops.^[2][9]
• 1599 – to flow in drops, trickle.^[2]
• 1673 – to let saliva run from the mouth.^[2]
• c. 1680 – noun, a trickle or small amount of liquid.^[13][2]
• 1863 – in football, to move the ball with short kicks.^[2][3]
• 1889 – noun, an act of dribbling in football.^[2]
• 1893 – in basketball, to bounce the ball while moving.^[2] Etymonline dates the basketball sense to 1892.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To flow, or let something flow, in drops or a thin stream; to trickle: Rainwater dribbled from the broken gutter.^[8][13][2]
2. To let saliva run from the mouth; to drool.^[8][2]
3. In football, basketball, hockey and other games, to move the ball along with a series of short kicks, taps or bounces.^[8][13][2]
4. (obsolete, 1567–1634) In archery, to shoot an arrow short of or wide of the mark.^[2][5]

Noun

1. A small quantity of liquid falling in drops or flowing in a thin stream.^[8][13][2]
2. A small amount or supply of anything.^[8][2]
3. An act of dribbling a ball.^[8][2]

Word family

• dribbler
• dribbly

Related words

• double dribble
• drip
• drop
• driblet
• drivel

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com