Etymologically
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drought

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 13:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /draʊt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English drougth, inherited from Old English drūgaþ (“dryness”), also drūgoþ,[2][3][4][5][6] from drūgian (“to dry up, wither”), from the base of drȳge (“dry”) (see dry),[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *drugothaz in Etymonline,[3] from Proto-Indo-European *dhreugh-.[2] It is formed like height from high, and compares with Dutch droogte.[3][6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dryness: before 1100.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Dryness of the weather, lack of rain, the current sense, is from about 1200.[7] Middle English drught (before 1325) and drowghte (about 1380, in Chaucer's Boethius) are recorded.[2] Thirst is an archaic and dialect sense from 1393.[7][8] Drouth, a variant, continued in Scots, northern English dialect and poetry.[3][8] A prolonged shortage of anything is a drought too.[9][8]

Timeline

  • before 1100 – dryness.[2][7]
  • c. 1200 – lack of rain.[7]
  • c. 1380 – drowghte.[2]
  • 1393 – thirst.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A long period of abnormally low rainfall.
  2. A prolonged shortage of something.
  3. (archaic, dialect) Thirst.

Word family

  • droughty
  • droughtiness

Usage notes

The Scots and archaic form is drouth.[8][3]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin