English
drudge
Drudge comes from Middle English druggen ‘to drudge’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500druggen‘to drudge’
- Englishearliest quotation 1682drudge
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500druggen‘to drudge’
- Englishearliest quotation 1682drudge
Earliest quotation: 1682, Thomas Otway: “Rise to our Toils and drudge away the day.”
The story
From Middle English druggen, perhaps from Old English *dryċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *druggjan, from Proto-Germanic *drugjaną, a denominative built to a lost noun *drugjaz (preserved in Old English Dryċġhelm), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ-; compare Old English drēogan (‘to do; to suffer’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- ‘to deceive’
Today it means
noun A person who works in a low servile job.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English druggen / drudge