drink

Pronunciation

• IPA: /drɪŋk/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English drinken,^[2][3] inherited from Old English drincan (“to swallow liquid; to engulf”),^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *drinkanan.^[2] It is cognate with Old Frisian drinka, Old Saxon drinkan, Dutch drinken, Old High German trinkan (German trinken), Old Norse drekka and Gothic drigkan.^[4][2][5] The word is not found outside Germanic;^[2][5] Etymonline suggests a root meaning “to draw”, while most Indo-European words for drinking go back to Proto-Indo-European *po(i)-, as in Latin bibere.^[4] The noun is late Old English drinc, from the verb.^[4][2] Old English also had drenc, the source of drench.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To swallow a liquid: Old English, about 725 in Barnhart,^[2] and the OED's first example is from about 1000.^[7] The noun, “a beverage”, is from about 888.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Old English drincan also meant “to swallow up, engulf”.^[4] The figurative sense “to take in through the senses” is from the late 12th century,^[4] and “to absorb moisture”, of soil or plants, from 1530.^[7] Drink to, “salute in drinking”, is by the mid-13th century,^[4] and the specific sense “to drink alcohol” is from the mid-15th century.^[4] The noun meant alcoholic drink from 1042^[7] and a single glass or draught from about 1300.^[4] Drink like a fish is from 1744 in Etymonline,^[4] though Word Origins finds it in Fletcher and Shirley's play The Night-Walker in the early 17th century.^[6] The drink, “the sea”, is from the mid-19th century.^[6] To drink someone under the table is by 1909.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English drincan.^[2]
• c. 888 – noun, a beverage.^[2][7]
• 1042 – alcoholic drink.^[7]
• late 12th century – to take in through the senses.^[4]
• c. 1300 – a draught, a portion of liquid.^[4]
• 1530 – to absorb moisture.^[7]
• 1744 – drink like a fish.^[4]
• 1909 – drink under the table.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To take a liquid into the mouth and swallow it.
2. To drink alcohol, especially habitually or to excess.
3. To toast a person or occasion: drink to the bride.
4. To take in or absorb; to take in eagerly through the senses.

Noun

1. A liquid for drinking; a beverage.
2. An amount swallowed at one time; a glass of something.
3. Alcoholic drink, or the habit of drinking too much of it.
4. (informal) the drink: a body of water, the sea.

Word family

• drinkable
• drinker
• drinking
• outdrink
• overdrink

Related words

• drunken
• drunk
• drench
• drunkard
• drown

Usage notes

The past tense is drank and the past participle drunk,^[8] drunk as a past tense is now non-standard.^[8] Drunk as an adjective comes from the past participle.^[6]

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