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Origin and history of drowsy

drowsy(adj.)

"inclined to sleep, sleepy," 1520s, probably ultimately from Old English drusan, drusian "sink," also "become languid, slow, or inactive" (related to dreosan "to fall;" see dreary). There is no record of it in Middle English. Related: Drowsily; drowsiness.

also from 1520s

Entries linking to drowsy

dreary(adj.)

Old English dreorig "sad, sorrowful," originally "cruel, bloody, blood-stained," from dreor "gore, blood," from (ge)dreosan (past participle droren) "fall, decline, fail," used of rain, snow, dew, fruit, and the slain, from Proto-Germanic *dreuzas (source also of Old Norse dreyrigr "gory, bloody," and more remotely, Old Saxon drorag, Middle High German troric "bloody;" German traurig "sad, sorrowful"), from PIE root *dhreu- "to fall, flow, drip, droop" (see drip (v.)).

The word has lost its original sense and the notion of "dripping blood." Sense of "lonesomely dismal, gloomy" first recorded 1667 in "Paradise Lost," but Old English had a related verb drysmian "become gloomy." Weakened sense of "causing a feeling of tedium, tiresomely monotonous" is by 1871. Related: Drearily.

drowse(v.)

"be heavy with sleep, be half asleep," 1570s, probably a back-formation from drowsy. Old English had a similar word, but there is a 600-year gap. Related: Drowsed; drowsing.The noun meaning "state of being half asleep" is by 1814.

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slumber
from Old English sluma "light sleep" (compare Middle Dutch slumen, Dutch sluimeren, Middle Low German slummern "become drowsy...
twice
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. ["King John," III.iv.]...
typhus
tendency to stupor (stupor attonitus); and in this sense it is aptly applied to typhus fever with its slow cerebration and drowsy...
nod
  Meaning "droop the head forward with a short, involuntary motion," as when drowsy, is by 1560s....
cotton
late 13c., "white fibrous substance containing the seeds of the cotton plant," from Old French coton (12c.), ultimately (via Provençal, Italian, or Old Spanish) from Arabic qutn, a word perhaps of Egyptian origin. Also ultimately from the Arabic word are Dutch katoen, German Katt
hegemony
1560s, "preponderance, dominance, leadership," originally of predominance of one city state or another in Greek history; from Greek hēgemonia "leadership, a leading the way, a going first;" also "the authority or sovereignty of one city-state over a number of others," as Athens i
philosophy
c. 1300, philosophie, "knowledge, learning, scholarship, scholarly works, body of knowledge," from Old French filosofie "philosophy, knowledge" (12c., Modern French philosophie) and directly from Latin philosophia, from Greek philosophia "love of knowledge, pursuit of wisdom; sys
avarice
c. 1300, "inordinate desire of gaining and possessing wealth," fifth of the seven deadly sins, from Old French avarice "greed, covetousness" (12c.), from Latin avaritia "greed, inordinate desire," from avarus "greedy, grasping," adjectival form of avere "crave, long for, be eager
fret
Old English fretan "devour, feed upon, consume," from Proto-Germanic compound *fra-etan "to eat up," from *fra- "completely" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "through") + *etan "to eat" (from PIE root *ed- "to eat"). Cognates include Dutch vreten, Old High German frezzan
time
Old English tima "limited space of time," from Proto-Germanic *timon- "time" (source also of Old Norse timi "time, proper time," Swedish timme "an hour"), from PIE *di-mon-, suffixed form of root *da- "to divide." The abstract sense of "time as an indefinite continuous duration"

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