English
drizzle
Drizzle may come from Middle English drysning ‘a falling of dew’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500drysning‘a falling of dew’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1579drizzle
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500drysning‘a falling of dew’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1579drizzle
Earliest quotation: 1579, Immeritô pseudonym; Edmund Spenser, Ianuarye. Ægloga Prima.: “And from mine eyes the drizling teares descend, As…”
The story
Perhaps a back-formation from dryseling, a dissimilated variant of Middle English drysning (‘a falling of dew’), from Northumbrian Old English drysnan (‘to extinguish’), related to Old English drēosan (‘to fall, to decline’), making it cognate to modern English droze and drowse.
Every English word from Middle English drysning
Today it means
verb To rain lightly.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English drysning / drizzle