draga

Forms

draga (singular past indicative dró, plural past indicative drógu, past participle dregit) (strong)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to draw, pull, carry”), a strong verb of the sixth class.^[2][3][1] The cognates are Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌽 (dragan), Old English dragan (“to draw, drag”), Old Frisian drega (“to carry”), Old Saxon dragan (“to carry, bring”) and Old High German tragan (“to carry”).^[2][4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks the West Germanic sense “to carry” grew out of “to drag along”, so that one verb explains both senses.^[5] Hellquist, by contrast, thought two stems may have been mixed up.^[6]

Kroonen sees an o-grade intensive verb with no clear etymology, and rejects the usual comparison with Ancient Greek τρέχω (trékhō, “to run”).^[2] De Vries also calls the etymology uncertain: either a root meaning “to hold fast” or Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag”), with Slavic words for “road” and perhaps Latin trahō (“to draw”).^[7][5] Orel compares an Albanian verb “to turn” instead.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's earliest dated citation is in a Norwegian Gulaþing law fragment of 1187, on ships brought home: þa skal upp draga oc hirða ræiða “then [the ship] shall be drawn up and the tackle stored”.^[8] In 1192 the manuscript ONP cites as EncCod1812 says the moon drégs … aftr “falls behind” the sun.^[8]

Semantic evolution

ONP lists over thirty senses spreading from the physical “draw, drag, haul”: hauling ships ashore, dragging a net, drawing fish from the water, a sword from its sheath, a bow, or one's breath; then “draw (a line), depict”, “attract”, “procure, earn”, “gather troops”, “draw someone into something”, and “drag out, delay”.^[8][9] The sense “to wear (clothes)” is one of the poetic uses that Fischer suspects of old borrowing or imitation of Old English, citing Vǫlundarkviða.^[10][8]

The verb continues as Icelandic and Faroese draga, Swedish draga, dra and Danish drage.^[7] English drag is from the Norse verb or from a dialect variant of Old English dragan.^[11] It was borrowed as Scottish Gaelic dragh (“to drag, pull”).^[12]

Timeline

• 1187 – upp draga “to draw up (a ship)” in a Gulaþing law fragment.^[8]
• 1192 – drégs aftr “falls behind”, of the moon, in the manuscript ONP cites as EncCod1812.^[8]
• 1200 – draga in the senses “bear (fruit)” and “derive” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[8]
• 1200–1225 – the first of 408 instances in Menota's texts.^[13]
• Late 14th century – Middle English draggen, from Old Norse or Old English.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. to draw, drag, haul (a load, a ship ashore); (of a horse) to pull or carry.^[8][9]
2. to wear (clothes); to let trail along the ground.^[8]
3. to pull, heave or draw out (a sword, a net, fish from the water).^[8][9]
4. to draw in (breath), inhale.^[8][9]
5. to attract.^[8]
6. to procure, earn, appropriate.^[8][9]
7. to gather (troops), raise (an army).^[8][14]
8. to bring or force (someone) into something.^[8]
9. to drag out, delay, prolong.^[8][9]
10. to draw (a line), depict, paint.^[8]

Word family

• drag
• dráttr
• dragna
• dregill
• drómi
• framdráttr
• dragnahross

Descendants

• Icelandic draga^[1]
• Faroese draga^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk draga^[1]
• Swedish draga^[1]
• Danish drage^[1]
• Middle English draggen, whence drag^[11]

Related words

• dorg
• drega

Usage notes

A separate weak feminine noun draga, mostly in the plural drǫgur, means a load of timber dragged by a horse, and is also the name of a verse-form in which a stanza begins with the last word of the one before.^[8][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 99
3. ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton, p. 160
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 74
5. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. draga
6. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. draga
7. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 80
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. draga
9. ^ a b c d e f Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. draga
10. ^ Fischer, Frank (1909), Die Lehnwörter des Altwestnordischen, Palaestra 85, Berlin, p. 186
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. dragh
13. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
14. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 88
15. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 103