dream
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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, both of which appeared in The Dream of the Rood, 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
Noun
dream (plural dreams)
- Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.
- Synonym: (archaic) sweven
- Hyponym: nightmare
- have a dream
- scary dream
- vivid dream
- erotic dream
- feel like a dream
- be in a dream
- 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes.
- 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II (Burglary), page 378, column 1:
- She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
- 1982, “Mad World”, in Roland Orzabal (lyrics), The Hurting, performed by Tears for Fears:
- And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
- (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:
- 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.
- 2010, Jonathan Green, Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet, 1st edition (Politics), PublicAffairs, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 33:
- More likely than capture is death at the hands of Chinese border police. Killings like that of fifteen-year-old Yeshe Dundrub, shot at night in Saga County (Ch: Saga Xian) in November 1999, while fleeing with forty others to Nepal, are covered up when possible. (Dundrub, whose dream was to be a monk, died in a military hospital bed nine hours after he was shot.)
- A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy.
- Synonym: vision
- live in a dream
- wake up from a dream
- impossible dream
- a dream of bliss
- the dream of his youth
- 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
- African dream herb
- American dream
- beyond one's wildest dreams
- cheese dream
- daydream
- dream board
- dreamboat
- dreambound
- dream catcher
- dreamcatcher
- dreamchild
- dream come true
- dreamcore
- dreamery
- dream factory
- dream feed
- dreamfish
- dreamful
- dreamgirl
- dreamhole
- dream house
- dreamish
- dreamland
- dreamless
- dreamlet
- dream life
- dreamlife
- dreamlike
- dreamlining
- dream list
- dreammate
- dream pop
- dreamscape
- dreamself
- dreamsign
- dreamsome
- dreamster
- dream team
- dream trance
- dream vision
- dreamward
- dreamware
- dreamwork
- dreamworker
- dreamworld
- dreamworthy
- dreamwrapt
- dreamy
- dream yoga
- fever dream
- foredream
- go like a dream
- impossible dream
- Indian's dream
- in one's wildest dreams
- interdream
- in your dreams
- in your wildest dreams
- like a dream
- live the dream
- lucid dream
- manic pixie dream girl
- nightdream
- nondream
- pipe dream
- teamwork makes the dream work
- waking dream
- wet dream
- work like a dream
Translations
imaginary events seen while sleeping
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hope or wish
|
visionary scheme
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
dream (third-person singular simple present dreams, present participle dreaming, simple past and past participle dreamed or dreamt)
- (intransitive) To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping.
- Last night I dreamed of cupcakes and chocolate cookies.
- 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1:
- Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
"Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."
- (intransitive) To hope, to wish.
- Lucy dreams of becoming a scientist when she'll grow up.
- (intransitive) To daydream.
- Stop dreaming and get back to work.
- (transitive) To envision as an imaginary experience (usually when asleep).
- I dreamed a vivid dream last night.
- 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC:
- And still they dream that they shall still succeed.
- 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- At length in sleep their bodies they compose, / And dreamt the future fight, and early rose.
- (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, [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:
- 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
see imaginary events while sleeping
|
to hope, to wish
|
daydream — see daydream
to create an imaginary experience
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Adjective
dream (not comparable)
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “dream”, in Online Etymology Dictionary..
Further reading
- “dream”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “dream”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
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