Re: To drag - drug - drug
- From: "Wayne Brown" <Wayne.Brown@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 16:11:39 +0200
Joachim Pense wrote:
Could "drag" be cognate to German "tragen"? If so, the "drug" would fit to tragen, trug, getragen.
Probably. German etymologists point to the possibility, noting that the root word meaning "carry," as in modern German, took on the meaning of "pull" in English and northern Germanic languages. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED) also lists the verb "drug," giving the meaning as "pull, drag" and saying "long obsolete" except in dialect. Another contributor has mentioned the persistent "something the cat drug in" for the standard "something the cat dragged in" (My God, what happened to you? You look like something the cat drug in). In AmE dialects, "drug" hangs on, especially in certain set phases (He was so tired he drug his feet all the way home).
This reminds me of verb forms that rhyme, namely hang and hung. Generations of American schoolchildren learned in English classes that "the judge ordered the murderer to be hung" was illiterate usage. Today, Merriam-Webster Online says the usage is standard but "hanged is most appropriate for official executions." English's close relative German theoretically could have the same difficulties with "hängen," but for some reason the problem didn't arise.
Regards, ----- WB.
.
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