drone

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See also: Drone

English

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

Pronunciation

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  • Rhymes: -əʊn

Etymology 1

From Middle English drone, from Old English drān, 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

drone (plural drones)

  1. A male ant, bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen bee.
    • (Can we date this quote by Dryden and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      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.
    • (Can we date this quote by Burton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      By living as a drone, to be an unprofitable and unworthy member of so noble and learned a society.
  3. One who performs menial or tedious work.
    Synonym: drudge
  4. (colloquial, aviation) A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
    Synonyms: UAV, UAS
    Hyponym: quadcopter
    • 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.
    Several images of the compound were obtained via a drone overflight.
    One team member launched a camera drone over the Third Pole.
Usage notes
  • In sense “unmanned aircraft”, primarily used informally of military aircraft or consumer radio controlled quadcopters, without precise definition.[1]
Translations

Verb

drone (third-person singular simple present dron, present participle es, 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

From Middle English drounen (“to roar, bellow”), ultimately perhaps 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

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

Translations

Noun

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.
    • (Can we date this quote by Longfellow and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      The monotonous drone of the wheel.
Translations

Further reading

References

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

Anagrams

Dutch

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch drone (“bee drone”). Doublette with drone (“unmanned aircraft”) (see below).

Noun

drone m (plural dronen, diminutive droontje n)

  1. (archaic) a male bee or wasp; a drone (Can we verify(+) this sense?)
Synonyms

Etymology 2

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

Pronunciation

Noun

drone m (plural drones, diminutive droontje n)

  1. a remotely controlled aircraft; a drone
Derived terms

Finnish

Etymology

< English drone

Pronunciation

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

Noun

drone

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

Declension

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
dronein rare
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
abessive dronetta droneitta
instructive — dronein
comitative See the possessive forms below.
Possessive forms of drone (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)
first-person singular possessor
singular plural
nominative droneni droneni
accusative nom. droneni droneni
gen. droneni
genitive droneni dronejeni
droneini rare
partitive droneani dronejani
inessive dronessani droneissani
elative dronestani droneistani
illative droneeni droneihini
adessive dronellani droneillani
ablative droneltani droneiltani
allative dronelleni droneilleni
essive dronenani droneinani
translative dronekseni droneikseni
abessive dronettani droneittani
instructive — —
comitative — droneineni
second-person singular possessor
singular plural
nominative dronesi dronesi
accusative nom. dronesi dronesi
gen. dronesi
genitive dronesi dronejesi
droneisi rare
partitive droneasi dronejasi
inessive dronessasi droneissasi
elative dronestasi droneistasi
illative droneesi droneihisi
adessive dronellasi droneillasi
ablative droneltasi droneiltasi
allative dronellesi droneillesi
essive dronenasi droneinasi
translative droneksesi droneiksesi
abessive dronettasi droneittasi
instructive — —
comitative — droneinesi
first-person plural possessor
singular plural
nominative dronemme dronemme
accusative nom. dronemme dronemme
gen. dronemme
genitive dronemme dronejemme
droneimme rare
partitive droneamme dronejamme
inessive dronessamme droneissamme
elative dronestamme droneistamme
illative droneemme droneihimme
adessive dronellamme droneillamme
ablative droneltamme droneiltamme
allative dronellemme droneillemme
essive dronenamme droneinamme
translative droneksemme droneiksemme
abessive dronettamme droneittamme
instructive — —
comitative — droneinemme
second-person plural possessor
singular plural
nominative dronenne dronenne
accusative nom. dronenne dronenne
gen. dronenne
genitive dronenne dronejenne
droneinne rare
partitive droneanne dronejanne
inessive dronessanne droneissanne
elative dronestanne droneistanne
illative droneenne droneihinne
adessive dronellanne droneillanne
ablative droneltanne droneiltanne
allative dronellenne droneillenne
essive dronenanne droneinanne
translative droneksenne droneiksenne
abessive dronettanne droneittanne
instructive — —
comitative — droneinenne
third-person possessor
singular plural
nominative dronensa dronensa
accusative nom. dronensa dronensa
gen. dronensa
genitive dronensa dronejensa
droneinsa rare
partitive droneaan
droneansa 		dronejaan
dronejansa
inessive dronessaan
dronessansa 		droneissaan
droneissansa
elative dronestaan
dronestansa 		droneistaan
droneistansa
illative droneensa droneihinsa
adessive dronellaan
dronellansa 		droneillaan
droneillansa
ablative droneltaan
droneltansa 		droneiltaan
droneiltansa
allative dronelleen
dronellensa 		droneilleen
droneillensa
essive dronenaan
dronenansa 		droneinaan
droneinansa
translative dronekseen
droneksensa 		droneikseen
droneiksensa
abessive dronettaan
dronettansa 		droneittaan
droneittansa
instructive — —
comitative — droneineen
droneinensa

Synonyms

French

Noun

drone m (plural drones)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Italian

Etymology

From English drone

Noun

drone m (uncountable)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Anagrams

Norwegian Bokmål

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

Etymology

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

Noun

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

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

Synonyms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Noun

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

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

Synonyms

References

Portuguese

Etymology

From English drone

Noun

drone m (plural s)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Spanish

Alternative forms

Etymology

From English drone

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈdɾon/ [ˈd̪ɾõn]

Noun

drone m (plural drones)

  1. drone
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