Etymograph

English

drop

Drop comes from Middle English droppe ‘small quantity of liquid’, from Old English dropa ‘a drop’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *drupô.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drupô1‘drop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dropō1‘drop’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dropa1‘a drop’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500droppe1‘small quantity of liquid’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1834drop1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English drop
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1834, Peregrine Reedpen pseudonym, The Survey Continued. Odds and Ends.: “She is rather fond of her drops, and is…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*drupôWiktionary, English drop‘drop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dropōWiktionary, English drop‘drop’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dropaWiktionary, English drop‘a drop’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500droppeWiktionary, English drop‘small quantity of liquid’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1834dropWiktionary, English drop. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1834, Peregrine Reedpen pseudonym, The Survey Continued. Odds and Ends.: “She is rather fond of her drops, and is…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- ‘to drip, drop’

trapping, draper, drab, 5 more

through Proto-Germanic *drupô ‘drop (of liquid)’

drip, 1 more

Another origin of drop

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰrebʰ-‘to drip, drop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*druppōną‘to drop, to fall’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dropōnreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150dropian‘to drop’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500droppen‘to rain’
  6. Englishtodaydrop

Today it means

noun A small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own rounded shape through surface tension, especially one that falls from a source of liquid.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “drop”. 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 *drupô / drop

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