Etymograph

English

drag

Drag comes from Middle English draggen ‘to drag’, from dragen ‘to draw, carry’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *draganą.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*draganą‘to draw, drag’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dragan‘to haul, carry’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dragan‘to drag, draw, draw oneself, go, protract’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dragen‘to draw, carry’
  5. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500draggen‘to drag’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1697drag

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*draganą‘to draw, drag’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dragan‘to haul, carry’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dragan‘to drag, draw, draw oneself, go, protract’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dragen‘to draw, carry’
  5. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500draggen‘to drag’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1697drag

Earliest quotation: 1697, Virgil, (please specify the book number): “have dragged a lingering life”.

The story

Verb sense influenced due to association with the noun drag (‘that which is hauled or dragged’), related to Low German dragge (‘a drag-anchor, grapnel’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- ‘to draw, drag’

train, attractive, retreat, portrait, attraction, extraction, distraction, withdraw, tract, draught, entreat, 50 more

through Proto-Germanic *draganą ‘to draw, drag’

drawing, draft, 1 more

through Old English dragan ‘to drag, draw, draw oneself, go, protract’

drawer, 1 more

through Middle English dragen ‘to draw, carry’

draw

Another origin of drag

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰregʰ-‘to run, to drag, to pull’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrógʰ-e-tiuncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*draganą‘to draw, to pull, to carry’uncertain
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dragan‘to haul, carry’uncertain
  5. Old High Germanc. 750–1050tragan‘to carry’uncertain
  6. Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350tragen‘to bear, to carry’uncertain
  7. Yiddishmodernטראָגןtrogn‘to wear’uncertain
  8. Englishtodaydrag

Today it means

noun Resistance of a fluid to something moving through it.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *draganą / drag

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