Etymograph

English

dream

Dream comes from Middle English dream, from Old English drēam ‘joy, music’, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, ultimately from PIE *dʰrewgʰ- ‘to deceive’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrewgʰ-1‘to deceive’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrowgʰ-mos1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*draugmaz1reconstructed
  4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*draumaz1‘dream’reconstructed
  5. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*draum1reconstructed
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150drēam1‘joy; music’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dream1
  8. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602dream1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English dream
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrewgʰ-Wiktionary, English dream‘to deceive’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrowgʰ-mosWiktionary, English dreamreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*draugmazWiktionary, English dreamreconstructed
  4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*draumazWiktionary, English dream‘dream’reconstructed
  5. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*draumWiktionary, English dreamreconstructed
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150drēamWiktionary, English dream‘joy; music’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dreamWiktionary, English dream
  8. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602dreamWiktionary, English dream. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,…”

The story

The sense of "dream", though not attested in Old English, may still have been present (compare Old Saxon drōm (‘bustle, revelry, jubilation", also "dream’)), and was undoubtedly reinforced later in Middle English by Old Norse draumr (‘dream’), from same Proto-Germanic root.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- ‘to deceive’

drug, fraud, drain, drudge, truculent, 17 more

Today it means

noun Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “dream”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- / dream

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