drive

Pronunciation

• IPA: /draɪv/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English driven, inherited from Old English drīfan (“to compel to move; to hunt, pursue; to rush against”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *drībaną.^[2][5] Its cognates include Old Frisian drīva, Old Saxon drīban, Dutch drijven, German treiben and Old Norse drífa,^[3][6][7] and Gothic has dreiban.^[2][5] Hoad finds no certain cognates outside Germanic;^[5] Watkins traces it to Proto-Indo-European *dhreibh- (“to drive, push”),^[2][8] and Merriam-Webster compares Lithuanian dribti (“to fall in flakes”).^[9] It is related to drift and drove.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To force to move, to chase: Old English drīfan, about 725,^[3] used of nails, ships, ploughs, vehicles and cattle.^[2]

Semantic evolution

“To compel or incite to an action or state”, as in drive mad, is by the late 12th century,^[2] “to work with energy” from about 1200, and “to aim a blow” by the early 14th century.^[2] In Middle English one could drive a bargain.^[2] To convey someone in a carriage is from the 1660s;^[2] Etymonline notes that the original sense of pushing from behind was altered when the word was applied to motor cars.^[2] The noun, an act of driving, is from the 1690s,^[2] or 1697,^[10] an excursion by vehicle from 1785, and a carriage road from 1816.^[2] A forcible hit in cricket is from 1827, and in golf from 1836.^[2] A campaign to raise money is by 1889, American English, and “dynamism, energy” from 1908.^[2][10] The computer drive is by 1963.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English drīfan.^[3]
• late 12th century – to compel.^[2]
• 1660s – to convey in a carriage.^[2]
• 1697 – noun, the act of driving.^[10]
• 1785 – noun, a trip in a vehicle.^[2]
• 1816 – noun, a road.^[2]
• 1827 – noun, a hit in cricket.^[2]
• 1889 – noun, a campaign.^[2]
• 1908 – noun, energy.^[2]
• 1963 – noun, a computer drive.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To push or press onward forcibly; to drive away; to propel.
2. To operate a vehicle; to convey or travel in a vehicle.
3. To supply the power that makes a machine work.
4. To force into an action or state: drive someone mad.
5. To hit a ball hard.

Noun

1. A trip in a vehicle.
2. A road, especially a private road to a house.
3. The apparatus that transmits power to a machine; a disk drive.
4. An organized campaign: a fund-raising drive.
5. Energy and determination; a strong instinctive urge.
6. A forceful hit of a ball.

Word family

• drivability
• drivable

Related words

• drave
• drift
• drove
• driver
• driveway
• adrift

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 k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press