drone

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See also: Drone

English[edit]

drone bee
MQ-9 Reaper drone, a military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
MD4-200 quadcopter in flight, a small type of drone

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English drane, from Old English drān, from Proto-West Germanic *drānu, 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”).

In sense “unmanned aircraft”, due to early military UAVs dumbly flying on preset paths.[1] The verb sense derives from this sense.

Noun[edit]

drone (plural drones)

  1. A male ant, bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen bee.
    • 1697, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:
      All with united force combine to drive / The lazy drones from the laborious hive.
  2. (now rare) Someone who does not work; a lazy person, an idler.
    • 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene v[2]:
      SHYLOCK:
      The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder,
      Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
      More than the wild-cat; drones hive not with me;
      Therefore I part with him; and part with him
      To one what I would have him help to waste
      His borrowed purse. […]
    • 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.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:
      by living as a drone, to be an unprofitable or unworthy member of so learned and noble a society
  3. One who performs menial or tedious work.
    Synonym: drudge
  4. (aviation) A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
    Synonyms: UAV, UAS
    Hyponym: quadcopter
    Several images of the compound were obtained via a drone overflight.
    One team member launched a camera drone over the Third Pole.
    • 2012 October 25, Scott Shane, “Drone Strikes to Be Investigated”, in New York Times‎[3]:
      The United Nations is setting up a unit to investigate American drone strikes and other targeted killings of terrorist suspects, Ben Emmerson, the United Nations special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, said Thursday.
    • 2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist‎[4], 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.
    • 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[5], volume 188, number 26, page 6:
      In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
    • 2017 October 17, Christina Caron, “After Drone Hits Plane in Canada, New Fears About Air Safety”, in New York Times‎[6]:
      In April, as an Air Canada Jazz flight was landing at Trudeau Airport, a drone came so close the pilot was able to identify it as a quadcopter.
    • 2020 May 20, Paul Stephen, “NR beats floods to secure tracks to Drax”, in Rail, page 58, photo caption:
      NR made extensive use of drones, helicopters and a team of divers to inspect the flood-damaged section of embankment that forced the closure of one of the lines into Drax from February 6-April 20.
Usage notes[edit]
  • In sense “unmanned aircraft”, primarily used informally of military aircraft or consumer radio controlled quadcopters, without precise definition.[1]
Translations[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • → Spanish: dron
  • → Polish: dron
  • → Asturian: dron

Verb[edit]

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

  1. (transitive, colloquial) To kill with a missile fired by unmanned aircraft.
    • 2014, Colin Campbell, “Bill Ayers To Obama: 'Stop Droning People'”, in Business Insider‎[7]:
      "I have a lot of advice for him," Ayers said in the interview, aired Tuesday night. "I want him to stop droning people. I want him to close Guantanamo. I want universal healthcare. Don't you think we deserve universal healthcare? Seriously."
    • 2016, David Moye, “Trevor Noah: If Trump Is Elected, He’ll Wage ‘Warsuits’”, in Huffington Post‎[8]:
      “He won’t be waging wars all the world ― he’ll be waging ‘warsuits,’” Noah said. “Droning people with subpoenas all over the globe.”
    • 2018, David Weigel, “The new ‘Dr. No’: Rep. Justin Amash, marooned in Congress”, in Washington Post‎[9]:
      “Are we still droning people? Yeah,” he said. “Are we still running covert operations that weren’t authorized by Congress? Yeah. Is the government still spying on Americans without warrants? Without due process. Yeah. When some libertarians talk about the great accomplishments we’re seeing on foreign policy, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Reaching out to these guys is one thing, but you have to move down the court. [Trump] actually made it harder for us to have a good relationship with Russia.”

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English drounen (“to roar, bellow”), from Proto-West Germanic *drunnjan, from Proto-Germanic *drunjaną (“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.

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

drone (plural drones)

  1. A low-pitched hum or buzz.
  2. (music) One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe.
  3. (music, uncountable) A genre of music that uses repeated lengthy droning sounds.
  4. A humming or deep murmuring sound.
Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kelsey D. Atherton (March 7, 2013) , “Flying Robots 101: Everything You Need To Know About Drones”, in Popular Science‎[1], archived from the original on 2013-03-10

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English drone (“aircraft drone”). Doublette with dar (“male bee”), which descended from Middle Dutch, cf. Limburgish dreen.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

drone m (plural drones, diminutive droontje n)

  1. a remotely controlled aircraft; a drone

Derived terms[edit]

Finnish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

< English drone

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈdrone/, [ˈdro̞ne̞]
  • Rhymes: -one
  • Syllabification: dro‧ne

Noun[edit]

drone

  1. (Anglicism) drone (type of unmanned aircraft)

Declension[edit]

Inflection of drone (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)
nominative drone dronet
genitive dronen dronejen
partitive dronea droneja
illative droneen droneihin
singular plural
nominative drone dronet
accusative nom. drone dronet
gen. dronen
genitive dronen dronejen
droneinrare
partitive dronea droneja
inessive dronessa droneissa
elative dronesta droneista
illative droneen droneihin
adessive dronella droneilla
ablative dronelta droneilta
allative dronelle droneille
essive dronena droneina
translative droneksi droneiksi
instructive — dronein
abessive dronetta droneitta
comitative — droneineen
Possessive forms of drone (type nalle)
possessor singular plural
1st person droneni dronemme
2nd person dronesi dronenne
3rd person dronensa

Synonyms[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English drone

Noun[edit]

drone m (plural drones)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Derived terms[edit]

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English drone

Noun[edit]

drone m (invariable)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Anagrams[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

drone

  1. Alternative form of drane

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no
Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology[edit]

From Middle Low German drone (sense 1), and English drone (sense 2).

Noun[edit]

drone m (definite singular dronen, indefinite plural droner, definite plural dronene)

  1. a drone (male bee)
  2. a drone (radio-controlled pilotless aircraft)

Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle Low German drone (sense 1), and English drone (sense 2).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

drone m (definite singular dronen, indefinite plural dronar, definite plural dronane)

  1. drone (male bee)
  2. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English drone.[1][2]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /ˈdɾɔ.nɨ/, [ˈdɾɔ.nɨ]
  • Hyphenation: dro‧ne

Noun[edit]

drone m (plural drones)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

References[edit]

  1. ^ “drone” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2021.
  2. ^ “drone” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Spanish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English drone.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈdɾon/, [ˈd̪ɾõn]

Noun[edit]

drone m (plural drones)

  1. drone
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