drove

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /drəʊv/, US /droʊv/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English drof, inherited from Old English drāf (“the act of driving; a herd driven”),^[2][3][4] from drīfan (“to drive”) (see drive), from a gradation variant of the same base.^[4][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of driving: 971 in the OED and Barnhart, a sense found only in Old English.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

A herd or flock of animals driven together is from before 1121 in the OED, and in Middle English from about 1250, in Genesis and Exodus;^[6][2] a crowd of people or other animals moving together is from 1014.^[6] Old English draf also meant a road along which cattle were driven,^[3] and a drainage or irrigation channel, a sense kept in East Anglian and fenland use.^[6][7] A stonemason's broad chisel is from 1825.^[6] Drover, one who drives livestock to market, is from 1393–94, earlier as a surname,^[2] and the verb drove, to drive cattle, from 1632, probably a back-formation from drover.^[6][5][8] In droves, in great numbers, comes from the sense of a crowd.^[9][7]

Timeline

• 934 – a channel.^[6]
• 971 – the act of driving.^[6]
• 1014 – a crowd.^[6]
• a1121 – a herd driven together.^[6]
• 1393–94 – drover.^[2]
• 1825 – a mason's chisel.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A herd or flock of animals being driven together.
2. (often droves) A large crowd of people moving together: they came in droves.
3. A broad chisel for dressing stone, or a surface dressed with it.
4. A narrow channel for drainage or irrigation.

Word family

• drover

Related words

• drive
• drift

Usage notes

Drove is also the past tense of drive, from Old English drāf, the past tense of drīfan;^[3][7] this form is the same in origin as the noun.^[4][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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin