English
dree
Dree may come from Scots dree ‘to endure, suffer, put up with, undergo’.
- Scotsc. 1450–presentdree1‘to endure, suffer, put up with, undergo’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1826dree1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English dree
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1826, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Literary Gazette: “Peace to the souls of the graveless dead! /…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Scotsc. 1450–presentdreeWiktionary, English dree‘to endure, suffer, put up with, undergo’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1826dreeWiktionary, English dree. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1826, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Literary Gazette: “Peace to the souls of the graveless dead! /…”
The story
Probably partly borrowed from Scots dree, and partly derived from its etymon Middle English dreen, dreghen, dreogen, drien, from Old English drēogan, from Proto-West Germanic *dreugan, from Proto-Germanic *dreuganą (‘to act; to work, (specifically) to do military service’), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (‘to hold fast’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- ‘to hold fast’
Today it means
verb To bear or endure (something); to put up with, to suffer, to undergo.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “dree”. 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 / Scots dree / dree