Etymograph

English

drip

Drip comes from Old English drypan ‘to drip, fall in drops’, from Proto-Germanic *drupô ‘drop’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrbʰ-néh₂-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrbʰ-néh₂-1uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dreupaną2‘to drop, drip’uncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drupô3‘drop’reconstructed
  4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drupjaną3‘to fall in drops, drip’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150drypan3‘to drip, fall in drops’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500drippen3
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1913drip3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *dreupaną
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *drupô
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English drip
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1913, Joseph Crosby Lincoln, New York: “Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrbʰ-néh₂-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *dreupanąuncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dreupanąWiktionary, Proto-Germanic *drupô‘to drop, drip’uncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drupôWiktionary, English drip‘drop’reconstructed
  4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drupjanąWiktionary, English drip‘to fall in drops, drip’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150drypanWiktionary, English drip‘to drip, fall in drops’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500drippenWiktionary, English drip
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1913dripWiktionary, English drip. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1913, Joseph Crosby Lincoln, New York: “Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with…”

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *drupô ‘drop’

drop, 1 more

Another origin of drip

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500drippe
  2. Englishtodaydrip

Today it means

verb To fall one drop at a time.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “drip”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *dreupaną, Proto-Germanic *drupô. 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 *dʰrbʰ-néh₂- / drip

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