Drohne

Etymology

Ca. 1600, from Middle Low German drōne (variant of commoner drāne), from Old Saxon drāna, from Proto-West Germanic *drānu, from Proto-Germanic *drēnuz.

The Low German form replaced older Tren(e), Trän(e), from Middle High German tren(e), from Old High German treno, from the Germanic ablaut variant *drenô. This may have been reinforced by the desire to avoid homonymy with Träne (“tear”). The word was originally a masculine but became feminine in Early Modern German, probably under the influence of Biene (“bee”). Drones were at that time distinguished only by function; the fact that they were males was generally unknown. The aircraft sense is a semantic loan from cognate English drone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʁoːnə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Droh‧ne

Noun

Drohne f (genitive Drohne, plural Drohnen)

1. drone (male bee)

   Coordinate terms: Bienenkönigin, Arbeiterin

2. (dated) sponger, parasite
3. (aviation) drone (unmanned aircraft)

Further reading

• Drohne on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• “Drohne” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Drohne” in Duden online