dream

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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

Noun

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dream (plural dreams)

  1. 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
  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:
      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[1]:
      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[2], 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.)
  3. 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

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Translations

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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

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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.
    Last night I dreamed of cupcakes and chocolate cookies.
  2. (intransitive) To hope, to wish.
    Lucy dreams of becoming a scientist when she'll grow up.
  3. (intransitive) To daydream.
    Stop dreaming and get back to work.
  4. (transitive) To envision as an imaginary experience (usually when asleep).
    I dreamed a vivid dream last night.
  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, [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

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  • "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

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Translations

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Adjective

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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[3]:
      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

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  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “dream”, in Online Etymology Dictionary..

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Irish

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FWOTD – 16 February 2014

Etymology

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From Middle Irish dremm (“crowd, throng”),[1] from Proto-Celtic *drexsmā, itself probably related to *drungos (“throng, host”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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, “IV: Scolaidheacht agus Fánaidheacht”, in An t-Oileánach, page 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

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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

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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

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  1. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “drem(m)”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  2. ^ Dillon, Myles, Ó Cróinín, Donncha (1961) Teach Yourself Irish, Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 224
  3. ^ Ó Sé, Diarmuid (2000) Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, § 537
  4. ^ Ó Máille, T. S. (1974) Liosta Focal as Ros Muc (in Irish), Irish University Press, page 75
  5. ^ Finck, F. N. (1899) Die araner mundart (in German), volume II, Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 87
  6. ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 4, page 5

Further reading

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Middle English

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Noun

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dream

  1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of drem

Old English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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drēam m

  1. joy, pleasure, gladness, rejoicing
    • 10th century, The Wanderer:
      Wōriað þā wīnsalo; · waldend liċġað
      drēame bidrorene; · duguþ eal ġecrong,
      wlonc bī wealle. · Sume wīġ fornōm,
      The wine-halls ramble; lords lie still,
      deprived of mirth; army completely perished,
      proud by the wall. The war took away some men,
  2. that which causes merriment: musical instrument, music, melody, song, harmony
  3. frenzy, ecstasy

Declension

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

Derived terms

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Descendants

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See also

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West Frisian

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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

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Further reading

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