Etymologically
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drove

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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

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