Dreary Definition

Origin of Dreary

• From Middle English drery, from Old English drēoriġ (“dreary, sad, sorrowful, mournful, pensive, causing grief, cruel, horrid, grievous, bloody, blood-stained, gory, glorious”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreus- (“to break, break off, crumble”). Cognate with Dutch treurig (“sad, gloomy”), German traurig (“sad, sorrowful, mournful”), Old Norse dreyrigr (“bloody”). Related to Old English drēor (“blood, falling blood”), Old English drysmian (“to become gloomy”).

  From Wiktionary

• Middle English dreri bloody, frightened, sad from Old English drēorig bloody, sad from drēor gore dhreu- in Indo-European roots

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition