Origin and history of drain

drain(v.)

Middle English dreinen, from Old English dreahnian "to draw off gradually, as a liquid; remove by degrees; strain out," from Proto-Germanic *dreug-, source of drought, dry, giving the English word originally a sense of "to make dry." Figurative meaning of "exhaust" is attested from 1650s. Intransitive sense of "to flow off gradually" is from 1580s. Related: Drained; draining.

drain(n.)

early 14c., dreine, "passage, pipe, or open channel for the removal of water or other liquid," from drain (v.). From 1721 as "act of draining, gradual or continuous outflow," usually figurative, of money, resources, etc. Colloquial expression down the drain "lost, vanished, gone to waste" is by 1930.

also from early 14c.

Entries linking to drain

drought(n.)

Old English drugaþ, drugoþ "continuous dry weather injurious to vegetation, dryness," from Proto-Germanic *drugothaz, from Germanic root *dreug- "dry" with *-itho, Germanic suffix for forming abstract nouns. See dry (adj.) + -th (2), and compare high/height, etc. Drouth was a Middle English variant continued in Scottish and northern English dialect and in poetry.

dry(adj.)

Middle English drie "without moisture, comparatively free from water or fluid," from Old English dryge, from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (source also of Middle Low German dröge, Middle Dutch druge, Dutch droog, Old High German trucchon, German trocken, Old Norse draugr), from Germanic root *dreug- "dry."

Meaning "barren" is mid-14c. Of persons, "showing no emotion," c. 1200; of humor or jests, "without show of pleasantry, caustic, sarcastic" early 15c. (implied in dryly). Sense of "uninteresting, tedious" is from 1620s. Of wines, brandy, etc., "free from sweetness or fruity flavor," 1700. Of places prohibiting alcoholic drink, 1870 (dry feast, one at which no liquor is served, is from late 15c.); colloquial dry (n.) "prohibitionist" is by 1888, American English political slang.

Dry goods (1650s) were those dispensed in dry, not liquid, measure. Dry land (that not under the sea) is from early 13c. Dry-nurse "nurse who attends and feeds a child but does not suckle it" is from 1590s. Dry run "rehearsal" is by 1941. Dry ice "solid carbon dioxide" is by 1925.