dream

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English drem, from Old English drēam (“music, joy”), from Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, from earlier *draugmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrowgʰ-mos, from *dʰrewgʰ- (“to deceive, injure, damage”).

The sense of "dream", though not attested in Old English, may still have been present (compare Old Saxon drōm (“bustle, revelry, jubilation", also "dream”)), and was undoubtedly reinforced later in Middle English by Old Norse draumr (“dream”), from same Proto-Germanic root.

Cognate with Scots dreme (“dream”), North Frisian drom (“dream”), West Frisian dream (“dream”), Low German Droom, Dutch droom (“dream”), German Traum (“dream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drøm, Norwegian Nynorsk draum, Swedish dröm (“dream”), Icelandic draumur (“dream”). Related also to Old Norse draugr (“ghost, undead, spectre”), Dutch bedrog (“deception, deceit”), German Trug (“deception, illusion”).

more details

The derivation from Old English drēam is controversial, since the word itself is only attested in writing in its meaning of “joy, mirth, musical sound”. Possibly there was a separate word drēam meaning “images seen while sleeping”, which was avoided in literature due to potential confusion with the “joy” sense. Otherwise, the modern sense must have been borrowed from another Germanic language, most probably Old Norse.[1] Since this is the common sense in all Germanic languages outside the British isles, a spontaneous development from “joy, mirth” to “dream” in Middle English is hardly conceivable. In Old Saxon, the cognate drōm did mean “dream”, but was a rare word.

Attested words for “sleeping vision” in Old English were mǣting (Middle English mæte, mete), from an unclear source, and swefn (Modern English sweven), from Proto-Germanic *swefnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swepno-, *swep-; compare Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”).

The verb is from Middle English dremen, possibly (see above) from Old English drīeman (“to make a joyous sound with voice or with instrument; rejoice; sing a song; play on an instrument”), from Proto-Germanic *draumijaną, *draugmijaną (“to be festive, dream, hallucinate”), from the noun. Cognate with Scots dreme (“to dream”), West Frisian dreame (“to dream”), Dutch dromen (“to dream”), German träumen (“to dream”), Swedish drömma (“to dream, muse”), Icelandic dreyma (“to dream”).

Pronunciation
  • enPR: drēm, IPA(key): /dɹiːm/, [d͡ʒɹiːm], [d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪi̯m]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːm

Noun

dream (plural dreams)

  1. Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.
    Synonym: (archaic) sweven
    have a dream
    scary dream
    vivid dream
    erotic dream
    feel like a dream
    be in a dream
    Hyponym: nightmare
  2. (figurative) A hope or wish.
    have a dream
    fulfil a dream
    harbour a dream
    realize a dream
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:
      So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
    • 1963 August 28, Martin Luther King, I have a Dream‎:
      I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!
    • 2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in AV Club:
      Ralph Wiggum is generally employed as a bottomless fount of glorious non sequiturs, but in “I Love Lisa” he stands in for every oblivious chump who ever deluded himself into thinking that with persistence, determination, and a pure heart he can win the girl of his dreams.
  3. A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy.
    Synonym: vision
    a dream of bliss
    the dream of his youth
    live in a dream
    wake up from a dream
    impossible dream
    • c. 1735, Alexander Pope, John Donne's Satires Versified
      There sober thought pursued the amusing theme,
      Till Fancy coloured it and formed a dream.
    • 1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion
      It is not, then, a mere dream, but a very real aim which they propose.

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

dream (third-person singular simple present dreams, present participle dreaming, simple past and past participle dreamed or dreamt)

  1. (intransitive) To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping.
  2. (intransitive) To hope, to wish.
  3. (intransitive) To daydream.
    Stop dreaming and get back to work.
  4. (transitive) To envision as an imaginary experience (usually when asleep).
    I dreamed I was a superhero and flew through a fireworks show.
  5. (intransitive) To consider the possibility (of).
    I wouldn't dream of snubbing you in public.
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene v], lines 167-8:
      There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
      Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175:
      But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection.
      […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.

Usage notes
  • "Dreamt" is less common than "dreamed" in both US and UK English in current usage, though somewhat more prevalent in the UK than in the US.

Derived terms

Translations
daydream — see daydream

Adjective

dream (not comparable)

  1. Ideal; perfect.
    • 2014, P.G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit and Other Stories, Random House, →ISBN, page 158:
      If a girl who talked like that was not his dream girl, he didn't know a dream girl when he heard one.
    • 2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-0 Brazil”, in BBC News‎:
      England found chances a rarity, although Liverpool striker Solanke almost made it a dream debut in the closing seconds, only to miscontrol at the far post.

References
  1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “dream”, in Online Etymology Dictionary..

Further reading
  • dream in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • dream in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Anagrams

Irish
FWOTD – 16 February 2014

Etymology

From Middle Irish dremm (“crowd, throng”), from Proto-Celtic *dregsmo, itself probably related to *drungos (“throng, host”).

Pronunciation

Noun

dream m (genitive singular dreama, nominative plural dreamanna)

  1. crowd, group of people, party (group of people traveling or attending an event together, or participating in the same activity)
    • 1929, Tomás Ó Criomhthain, An tOileánach, chapter 4 “Scolaidheacht agus Fánaidheacht”, p. 48:
      Thug sé scilling do’n té ab’ fhearr is gach rang agus ar shíneadh na scillinge ’nár rang-ne ní h-aenne de’n dream mór do fuair í ach me féin.
      He gave a shilling to the best one in each class, and when he was giving out shillings in our class, there wasn't one in that big group who got one but me myself.

Declension
Declension of dream

Third declension

Bare forms:

Case Singular Plural
Nominative dream dreamanna
Vocative a dhream a dhreamanna
Genitive dreama dreamanna
Dative dream dreamanna

Forms with the definite article:

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an dream na dreamanna
Genitive an dreama na ndreamanna
Dative leis an dream

don dream

 leis na dreamanna

Mutation
Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
dream dhream ndream
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References
  1. Myles Dillon and Donncha Ó Cróinín, Teach Yourself Irish, Hodder and Stoughton 1961, →ISBN, p. 224.
  2. Diarmuid Ó Sé, Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne, Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann 2000, →ISBN, § 537.
  3. T. S. Ó Máille, Liosta Focal as Ros Muc, Irish University Press 1974, p. 75.
  4. Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart, Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung 1899, vol. II, p. 87.
  5. E. C. Quiggin, A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press 1906, § 4.

Further reading

Middle English

Noun

dream

  1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of drem

Old English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, whence also Old Frisian drām, Old Saxon drōm (“joy, music, dream”), Old High German troum, Old Norse draumr.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /dræ͜ɑːm/

Noun

drēam m

  1. joy, pleasure, gladness, rejoicing
  2. that which causes merriment: musical instrument, music, melody, song, harmony
  3. frenzy, ecstasy

Declension
Declension of dream (strong a-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative drēam drēamas
accusative drēam drēamas
genitive drēames drēama
dative drēame drēamum

Derived terms

Descendants
  • Middle English: drem, dreme, dreem, dreeme; dream, dræm
    • English: dream
    • Scots: dreme

See also

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian drām, from Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /drɪə̯m/

Noun

dream c (plural dreamen, diminutive dreamke)

  1. dream, vision in one's sleep
    • 2008, Greet Andringa, Libben reach, Friese Pers Boekerij, page 70.
      Hy koe net sliepe, want de dreamen oer syn deade maten wiene noch slimmer as wat er mei de eagen iepen seach.
      He couldn't sleep, because the dreams about his dead companions were even worse than what he saw with his eyes open.
  2. daydream
  3. desire, what one wishes
  4. delusion

Derived terms
  • deidream

Further reading
  • “dream”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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