Tuesday, April 5, 2016

A-to-Z Challenge: D

Today, we’re going driving.


Drive comes from the Old English drifan, force, push, or drive back. It comes from the Proto Germanic driban and earlier, the Proto Indo European dhreibh, drive or push. Originally it meant something that you drove forward from behind, like a carriage that you drive forward by being behind the horses. But then cars ended up changing everything and now we don’t do much besides aim and hit the gas.

Having fun yet? : )

Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

14 comments:

  1. This one actually makes sense. How unusual.

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  2. I like automatic cars, so yep, all I do is aim and accelerate :) Sounds like we just took the being in control bit for drive and dumped the hard work :)
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  3. As writing is a solitary activity, mostly, we all have to have some self-drive to achieve our goals. Nice post.

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  4. That is an interesting word origin. Is there any relation back to Latin roots?

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  5. Yeah, but aiming and hitting the pedestrians would be illegal...

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  6. That's interesting. So, when we say we are driving, we're all using it incorrectly unless we're in buggy with a horse?

    ~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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  7. In regards to Alex's comment, it would be illegal if you were caught...

    What?

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  8. Then why am I so bad at it then?

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  9. Oh! I like this idea for a theme. I`ll be baCK!

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  10. I like that—Aim and hit the gas...It sounds like a good description. :)

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  11. I do love driving and I'm glad I don't have to hitch the horses to do it.
    Susan Says

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  12. Obviously, you don't play softball.

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  13. Well, cars did kind of appropriate all sorts of things that belonged to carriages before them. Kind of like how we have this whole language that goes along with telephones that is no longer relevant in the cell phone age. Hanging up? Dialing?

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  14. Love to find out about words and where they came from - made me realise where the word "drift" probably originates as well :)
    Pempi
    A Stormy’s Sidekick
    Special Teaching at Pempi’s Palace

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