drone

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Contents

English[edit]

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English drone, from Old English drān, drǣn (male bee, drone), from Proto-Germanic *drēniz, *drēnuz, *drenô (an insect, drone), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrēn- (bee, drone, hornet). Cognate with Dutch drone (male bee or wasp), Low German drone (drone), German Drohne, dialectal German Dräne, Trehne, Trene (drone), Danish drone (drone), Swedish drönje, drönare (drone).

Noun[edit]

drone (plural drones)

  1. A male bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilise the queen (Wikipedia).
  2. (now rare) Someone who doesn't work; a lazy person, an idler.
    • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 117:
      he that gathereth not every day as much as I doe, the next day shall be set beyond the river, and be banished from the Fort as a drone, till he amend his conditions or starve.
  3. A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, Wikipedia).
    • 2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, The Economist, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly): 
      A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.
Translations[edit]
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See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English drounen (to roar, bellow), ultimately perhaps from Proto-Germanic *drunjanan (to drone, roar, make a sound), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (to roar, hum, drone). Cognate with Scots drune (to drone, moan, complain), Dutch dreunen (to drone, boom, thud), Low German drönen (to drone, buzz, hum), German dröhnen (to roar, boom, rumble), Danish drøne (to roar, boom, peel out), Swedish dröna (to low, bellow, roar), Icelandic drynja (to roar).

Verb[edit]

drone (third-person singular simple present drones, present participle droning, simple past and past participle droned)

  1. To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz.
  2. To speak in a monotone way.

Noun[edit]

drone (plural drones)

  1. A low-pitched hum or buzz.
  2. One who performs menial or tedious work; a drudge.
  3. One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe.
  4. A genre of music similar to that of noise.
Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]


Dutch[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle Dutch drone (bee drone). Doublette with drone (unmanned aircraft), which was borrowed from English.

Noun[edit]

drone m (plural dronen, diminutive droontje)

  1. (archaic) a male bee or wasp; a drone
Synonyms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From English drone (aircraft drone). Doublette with drone (male bee), which descended from Middle Dutch.

Noun[edit]

drone m (plural drones, diminutive droontje)

  1. a remotely controlled aircraft; a drone

Italian[edit]

Noun[edit]

drone m (invariable)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Anagrams[edit]