Etymologically
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drive

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:45. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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
  • 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