Etymology: Old English draca < Common West Germanic *drako, < Latin draco dragon: compare Middle Dutch, Middle Low German, Old Frisian drake, modern Dutch draak, Old High German trahho, Middle High German trache, German drache; also Old Norse dreki (Swedish drake, Danish drage).

Etymology: Middle English, first found in 13th cent., corresponding to northern and central German dialect draak, drake, drache (same sense); this is apparently the second element in Old High German antrahho, antrehho, Middle High German antreche, German enterich, 1599 endtrich, German dialect endedrach, antrek, antrecht, entrach, Swedish (from Low German) anddrake, the first element usually explained as eend, end, ente, and, ant, anut ‘duck’, though the Old High German forms offer difficulties. The compound form is not known in English. If *drako , *drakko , *drekko was originally the West Germanic name of the male of the duck, the word for ‘duck’ may have been prefixed to distinguish it from the similar forms of drake n.¹ (The notion that Middle English drake was shortened from an Old English *andrake has no basis of fact, nor does the conjecture that the word contains the suffix -ric, -rich, ‘chief, mighty, ruler’.)

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps (i) < Middle Dutch dravic, denoting similar grasses (although this is first attested later: first half of the 15th cent.; Dutch dravik ) < a suffixed form (compare -ock suffix) of the Germanic base (variously with or without s -suffixation) of Dutch regional drep , dreps rye brome (19th cent.), Middle Low German drepse , (with metathesis) drespe darnel, Middle High German trefs , trefse ryegrass, darnel (German (with metathesis) Trespe , German regional Treff , Trefz ), Norwegian drap (in drap-havre oat-grass (19th cent.)), further etymology uncertain and disputed; perhaps related to the Germanic base of draff n., or perhaps a borrowing < a Celtic language (see below). Or perhaps (ii) the reflex of an unattested Old English *drafoc < a reflex of a Celtic base (perhaps with a more general sense ‘noxious weed’) also reflected by Breton draog , dreog darnel, and (apparently via Gaulish) post-classical Latin dravoca burdock (from 10th cent. in French sources), perhaps a suffixed form of a Celtic base reflected by Old French, Middle French droe darnel, kind of brome (early 13th cent.; French regional droue darnel), further etymology uncertain, perhaps < the same Indo-European base as Sanskrit dūrvā dog's tooth grass (see doob n.). However, it is not entirely clear how the attested words relate to each other (Welsh drewg ‘tare, darnel’ is apparently < English). Compare also post-classical Latin drauca (perhaps) wild oats (from late 13th cent. in British sources, earliest in Cornwall). In γ. forms (irrespective of which derivation is adopted) clearly after Dutch dravik. The form drank at δ. forms originates in the transmission error seen already in e.g. Middle English dranke at α. forms, perhaps influenced by the association of darnel with drunkenness; see discussion at eaver n.¹, and compare English regional drunk and drunken plant, both denoting darnel (19th cent.).