droop

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English droupen, also drupen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old Norse drúpa (“to droop, hang the head”),^[5][3][6][7] a weak verb from the same ablaut series as drjúpa (“to drip”).^[5][8] Barnhart prefers to speak of a Scandinavian source and compares the Old Icelandic verb.^[4] It is related to dropian (“to drop”),^[3][4][8] and Merriam-Webster also compares Middle Low German drūpen (“to drip”).^[8] Wiktionary traces the Norse verb to Proto-Germanic *drūpaną (“to hang down, drip, drop”) and further to Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to drip, drop”);^[1] the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to *dhreu-.^[6] Johnson derived it from Dutch droef (“sorrow”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sag or hang down, and to be downcast: before 1300,^[4][2] in the Middle English poem Loke to þi louerd, where the MED has to correct the form in the manuscript.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300,^[3] and the OED's first quotation, for flagging in spirit, is from about 1330, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Both the physical sense and the emotional one are there from the start,^[4][3] and the MED records the physical sense together with the setting of the sun.^[2] The General Prologue of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales has arrows that did not droop with low feathers,^[2] and in Lydgate flowers droop and fade on the stalk.^[2] From about 1420 to 1505 it could also mean to sink out of sight or to cower;^[5] from 1577 it was used of things that flag, fail or decay.^[5] The transitive use, to let the eyes or the head hang down, follows in 1582.^[5] Johnson (1755) put the emotional senses first: to languish with sorrow, to grow weak, to be dispirited.^[9] The noun, from the verb, appears in 1647,^[5][4][8] and American campus slang made it a word for a dull or foolish person by 1932.^[5][10] The dialects of Scotland, Yorkshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire kept the spelling droup, with such forms as droup-headed, of a cow.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1300 – to sag, hang down, be downcast.^[4][2] Etymonline dates it about 1300.^[3]
• c. 1330 – to flag in spirit, become dejected.^[5]
• before 1400 – to hang down, of the head, in the Cursor Mundi.^[5][2]
• c. 1420 – to sink out of sight, cower (obsolete by 1505).^[5]
• c. 1507 – adjective, drooping.^[5]
• c. 1540 – to sink or go down, later of the sun or the day.^[5]
• 1577 – to flag, fail, decay, of things.^[5]
• 1582 – transitive, to let hang down, lower the eyes.^[5]
• 1647 – noun, the act of drooping.^[5][4][8]
• 1932 – noun, in American slang, a fool or a languid person.^[5][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hang, bend or sag downward, as from tiredness or weight: The wet branches drooped over the path.^[12][8][5]
2. To lose strength or energy; to flag or languish: Her interest drooped after the first chapter.^[12][5]
3. To lose heart; to become dejected.^[12][8][5]
4. To let something hang or sink down: He drooped his head and said nothing.^[12][5]
5. (poetic) To sink or go down, especially of the sun.^[5][8]

Noun

1. The act or state of drooping; a sagging posture: the tired droop of his shoulders.^[12][8][5]
2. A downward deflection, as of a gun barrel.^[8]
3. A downward drift in a measured value or in a meter's reading.^[8]
4. (US slang) A dull, foolish or languid person.^[5][10]

Word family

• droopily
• droopy
• droopingly

Related words

• drop
• drip
• dreep

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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)
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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
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 c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins