Revised as of
1 July 2023
This particular word confusion has been my own bête noire for years, and I thought I’d better step up and explore it.
It seems reasonable for drug to be a past tense for drag, but every time I’ve read it in someone’s story . . . it’s given me the quivers. A sure sign that something’s wrong, lol. No, not necessarily on their part, I’ve found my own misconceptions. And been glad for the opportunity to repair the omissions in my own breadth of knowledge. God forbid I should look stupid *eye roll, grin*
You want to be very careful about when you use drug. And only for dialogue (or thoughts) for people coming from the southern part of the U.S. or as far west as Nebraska!
To forestall the coming storm, no, I’m not trying to poke fun at hunters or people with dental issues, the image is intended to shock thoughts awake.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Dragged | Drug |
|---|---|
Cowboy Show: Dragged by a Horse by Gabriel Villena Fernández is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Hillbilly at Work is japanesefirehydrants‘ work is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. A stereotype, yes, but it reinforces the idea of dialect. |
| Part of Grammar: This looks at the Dragged versus Drug word confusion strictly from its use as a verb. |
|
| Morpheme: drag
Verb, intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: drags |
Morpheme: drug
Dialect Verb, irregular; Verb, intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: drugs
Present participle: drugging |
| Verb, intransitive: Pull someone or something along forcefully, roughly, or with difficulty
[Drag on; informal; of a person] Inhale the smoke from a cigarette Verb, transitive:
[Informal; drag something up] Deliberately mention an unwelcome or unpleasant fact
[Of time, events, or activities] Pass slowly and tediously
|
Verb, irregular: [Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S.; nonstandard] Pull someone or something along forcefully, roughly, or with difficulty “Using drug as the past tense of drag is a dialect common to people who live in the southern United States, but linguists have noted that it is used frequently in states as far west as Nebraska” (Grammar Girl). Do check out Mignon Fogarty’s tip on “just saying no, it’s too funny! Verb, intransitive: To take drugs for narcotic effect Verb, transitive:
To administer a drug to To lull, stupefy, or poison with or as if with a drug |
| Examples: | |
| Verb, intransitive: Their habits dragged on the grass. Desperately, Jinny dragged at his arm. He dragged his butt across the floor. The anchor dragged. The day dragged — eventually it was time for bed. The dispute between the two families dragged on for years. He dragged on his cigarette. Verb, transitive: I dragged my eyes away. My girlfriend dragged me off to Atlantic City for a week. Look what the cat dragged in! I dragged myself out of bed each day. Frogmen had dragged the local river. Pieces of evidence about his early life were dragged up. Politics were never dragged into the conversation. The economy will be dragged down by inefficient firms. He dragged out the process of serving them. |
Verb, irregular: No, do not use drug to indicate to drag someone/thing unless you are specifically using it to recreate a regional dialect — and trying to make the person speaking sound stupid. Pa, we drug him home for the kids. Look what we drug in! Drug him on in here. Verb, intransitive: He’s drugging again. John has spent the last ten years drinking and drugging. She was convinced he was out drinking and drugging. If you think you may have been drugged, get tested as soon as possible. Verb, transitive: He drugged their coffee. Better drug them to keep them quiet. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: dragged-out, draggier, draggiest, draggle-tailed, draggy Noun: dragging, dragline Verb, transitive: draggle |
Noun: drugged, druggie |
| Phrasal Verb | |
| drag something out | |
| History of the Word: | |
| Middle English from the Old English dragan or the Old Norse draga meaning to draw. | Middle English from the Old French drogue, possibly from the Middle Dutch droge vate, literally meaning dry vats, referring to the contents, i.e., dry goods. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Dragged versus Drug
Apple Dictionary.com
Fogarty, Mignon. “Dragged versus Drug.” Quick and Dirty Tips. Grammar Girl. n.d. Web. n.d. <http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/dragged-versus-drug#sthash.lZ13iL09.dpuf>.
The Free Dictionary: drag, drug
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Jonathan Abramowitz Lecturing in Bergen, Norway is Lennybgoldberg’s own work under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license while Teenage Drug Addicts by Artem (Flickr) is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license; both are via Wikimedia Commons.
‘Bring and take’ are words that make me crazy! It seems that nobody ever wants to take anybody soup anymore. They say, “I’ll bring her some soup”.
I also really dislike the word ‘got’. Do we really need it in the English language? Who came up with the ad campaign “Got Milk?” We should send them back to school!
By the way, I love your fishing buddies!
LOL, they are perfect, aren’t they?