Etymograph

English

drop

Drop comes from Middle English droppe ‘small quantity of liquid’, from Old English dropa ‘a drop’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *drupô.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drupô‘drop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dropō‘drop’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dropa‘a drop’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500droppe‘small quantity of liquid’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1834drop

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drupô‘drop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dropō‘drop’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dropa‘a drop’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500droppe‘small quantity of liquid’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1834drop

Earliest quotation: 1834, Peregrine Reedpen pseudonym, The Survey Continued. Odds and Ends.: “She is rather fond of her drops, and is…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- ‘to drip, drop’

trapping, draper, drab, 5 more

through Proto-Germanic *drupô ‘drop (of liquid)’

drip, 1 more

Another origin of drop

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrebʰ-‘to drip, drop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*druppōną‘to drop, to fall’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dropōnreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150dropian‘to drop’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500droppen‘to rain’
  6. Englishtodaydrop

Today it means

noun A small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own rounded shape through surface tension, especially one that falls from a source of liquid.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *drupô / drop

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