drift

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English drift, not recorded in Old English.^[2][3][4] The OED treats it as a native Germanic noun of action from drīfan (“to drive”),^[2] formed like thrift from thrive or gift from give;^[4][5] Hoad, Ayto and Collins instead take it from Old Norse drift (“snowdrift”), later reinforced by Middle Dutch drift (“drove, current”).^[6][7][8] Etymonline leaves both explanations open.^[3] All of these forms, with German Trift (“pasture, drove”), go back to Proto-Germanic *driftiz, from the verb *drībaną (“to drive”).^[4][3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Driving rain or snow, a snowdrift: probably before 1325.^[4][6] The OED's first quotation, for "the act of driving, impulse", is from the Cursor Mundi (before 1400).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant the action of driving or being driven, and the MED has it for driving cattle to pasture and for a drove or herd;^[10][4] in forest law a drift was a round-up of cattle to settle their ownership (1540).^[2] In Lincolnshire dialect it kept the sense of driving horses and cattle on a common to count them.^[11] The idea of being carried by a current appears in 1555, and a ship's deviation from its course in 1671.^[2] From "course, tendency" (1549) came the drift of an argument, its general meaning.^[2][6] The verb was formed from the noun: Barnhart's first use (1584) is the Scottish "to put off, delay",^[4][2] and "to float along with a current" follows about 1600.^[2][12] The figurative sense of moving through life without purpose dates from 1822, in Hazlitt,^[2][3] and to drift apart, of people, by 1859.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1325 – driving snow or rain.^[4]
• 1426 – driving cattle to pasture.^[4]
• 1540 – a round-up of cattle in forest law.^[2]
• 1549 – a course or tendency.^[2]
• 1584 – the verb, to put off, delay (Scots).^[4][2]
• c. 1600 – to float or be driven along by a current.^[2][12]
• 1633 – driftwood.^[4]
• 1671 – a ship's deviation from its course.^[2]
• 1822 – to move passively or aimlessly.^[2][3]
• 1864 – drifter.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To be carried along by a current of water or air.
2. To move slowly, casually or without aim; to live without a clear purpose.
3. To move gradually away from a set course or position; of people, to drift apart.
4. Of snow or sand: to pile up in heaps driven by the wind.

Noun

1. A slow, continuous movement, or a deviation from a course caused by currents or winds.
2. A heap of snow, sand or the like piled up by the wind; a snowdrift.
3. The general meaning or tendency of something said.
4. (motor racing) A controlled slide.

Word family

• drifty
• driftless
• driftage
• drifter
• driftwood

Related words

• drive
• adrift
• drove

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster