Etymograph

English

drink

Drink comes from Middle English drinken ‘to drink’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *drinkaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drinkaną1‘to drink’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*drinkan1‘to drink’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150drincan1‘to drink’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500drinken1‘to drink’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1579drink1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English drink
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1579, Immeritô pseudonym; Edmund Spenser, Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.: “[…] There liues ſhee with the bleſſed Gods in…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drinkanąWiktionary, English drink‘to drink’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*drinkanWiktionary, English drink‘to drink’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150drincanWiktionary, English drink‘to drink’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500drinkenWiktionary, English drink‘to drink’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1579drinkWiktionary, English drink. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1579, Immeritô pseudonym; Edmund Spenser, Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.: “[…] There liues ſhee with the bleſſed Gods in…”

The story

From Middle English drinken, from Old English drincan (‘to drink, swallow up, engulf’), from Proto-West Germanic *drinkan, from Proto-Germanic *drinkaną (‘to drink’), of uncertain origin; possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- (‘to draw into one's mouth, sip, gulp’), nasalised variant of *dʰreǵ- (‘to draw, glide’).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with drink, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- ‘to draw into one's mouth, sip, gulp’

  • drunken ← druncen ← *drunkanaz ← *drinkaną
  • drenching ← drenchyng ← drenċende ← *drankijandz ← *drankijaną

through Proto-Germanic *drinkaną ‘to drink’

  • drunk ← drunke ← druncen ← *drunkanaz
  • drench ← drenchen ← drenċan ← *drankijan ← *drankijaną

through Middle English drinken ‘to drink’

10 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of drink

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrenǵ-‘to draw into one's mouth, sip, gulp’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drinkaną‘to drink’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drunkizreconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*drunkireconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150drynċ
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500drink
  7. Englishtodaydrink

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Today it means

verb To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “drink”. 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-Germanic *drinkaną / drink