drone

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /drəʊn/, US /droʊn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English drān, drǣn, male bee (about 1000, in Ælfric's Glossary),^[2][3][4] from *dran-,^[2][3] cognate with Old Saxon drān, Middle Low German drāne and Old High German treno (German Drohne is from Low German).^[3][4][5] It is probably imitative,^[3] from a base meaning to boom or resound, seen in Dutch dreunen, German dröhnen and Old Norse drynja, to roar;^[4][6][5] Ancient Greek ἀνθρήνη (anthrḗnē), wild bee, has been compared.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The male of the honeybee, which does no work: about 1000.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

A lazy idler who lives on others' work is from before 1529.^[7] The verb, to roar, is from the mid-14th century, and to make a monotonous humming sound from about 1500,^[3] and the noun for such a sound from 1500–20;^[7] a bagpipe drone is the pipe that sounds one continuous note.^[8] Speaking in a dull, monotonous tone is from the 1610s.^[3] A pilotless aircraft or missile directed by remote control is from 1946,^[7] named after the bee.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – a male bee.^[7][2]
• mid-14th century – to roar.^[3]
• c. 1500 – to hum monotonously.^[3]
• before 1529 – an idler.^[7]
• 1610s – to speak monotonously.^[3]
• 1946 – a pilotless aircraft.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A male bee, especially a honeybee, that does no work and whose only function is to mate with the queen.
2. A person who lives off the work of others; a loafer.
3. A pilotless aircraft directed by remote control.
4. A continuous low humming sound.
5. A bagpipe pipe that sounds a single sustained note.

Verb

1. To make a continuous low humming sound.
2. To speak in a dull, monotonous tone.

Word family

• droner
• droningly
• dronish

Related words

• bee

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins