See also: dröhne

German

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Etymology

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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

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  • IPA(key): /ˈdʁoːnə/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: Droh‧ne

Noun

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Drohne f (genitive Drohne, plural Drohnen)

  1. drone (male bee)
    Coordinate terms: Bienenkönigin, Arbeiterin
  2. (dated) sponger, parasite
  3. (aviation) drone (unmanned aircraft)

Declension

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Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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