Drought

Drought
Recorded in several forms including O'Drought, Drought, Drat, Drowt, Drout, and even Druitt, this is quite a rare Irish surname, although in its different spellings, quite widely recorded across the country. It is a derivative of the ancient Gaelic word 'droichead' meaning bridge, and as such in medieval times or earlier described a keeper of a bridge or causeway, and probably one who collected any tolls. In Ireland since the 15th century the name has generally been anglicised to its literal meaning of Bridgeman, although confusingly this is also an English settler surname, which from much the same period was popular in its own right in County Cork. Job descriptive surnames are very rare in Ireland and represent less than 1%, as against over 25% in England. Most Irish nameas are patronymics, deriving originally from the name or more more usually the nickname, of the first chief. In this case early surving examples of the surname recordings in some of its different forms include: Robert Drat, the son of William Drat, christened at St Johns church, Limerick, on December 18th 1725, Robert Drought, who married Elizabeth Vicars at Grantstown, Queens County (as recorded), on May 23rd 1732, and Jane Drowt, who married James O'Donnell, also at St Johns, Limerick, on August 10th 1794.

Surnames reference. 2013.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Drought — (drout), n. [OE. droght, drougth, dru[yogh][eth], AS. druga[eth], from drugian to dry. See {Dry}, and cf. {Drouth}, which shows the original final sound.] 1. Dryness; want of rain or of water; especially, such dryness of the weather as affects… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • drought|y — «DROW tee», adjective, drought|i|er, drought|i|est. 1. showing or suffering from drought: »a droughty, withered crop. 2. lacking moisture; dry …   Useful english dictionary

  • drought — O.E. drugað, drugoð drought, dryness, desert, from P.Gmc. *drugothaz, from Germanic root *dreug dry (cf high/height) with ith, Germanic suffix for forming abstract nouns from adjectives (see TH (Cf. th)). Drouth was a M.E. variant continued in… …   Etymology dictionary

  • drought — drought; drought·i·ness; …   English syllables

  • drought — index paucity Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • drought — [draut] n [U and C] [: Old English; Origin: drugath; related to dry] a long period of dry weather when there is not enough water for plants and animals to live …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • drought — [ draut ] noun count or uncount a long period of time when there is little or no rain and crops die …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • drought — [n] dryness; shortage of supply aridity, dearth, deficiency, dehydration, desiccation, dry spell, insufficiency, lack, need, parchedness, rainlessness, scarcity, want; concepts 607,646 Ant. monsoon, wetness …   New thesaurus

  • drought — ► NOUN ▪ a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall; a shortage of water. ORIGIN Old English, «dryness» …   English terms dictionary

  • drought — [drout] n. [ME < OE drugoth, dryness < drugian, to dry up; akin to dryge, DRY] 1. a prolonged period of dry weather; lack of rain 2. a prolonged or serious shortage or deficiency 3. Archaic thirst droughty adj. droughtier, droughtiest …   English World dictionary

  • Drought — For other uses, see Drought (disambiguation). Fields outside Benambra, Victoria, Australia suffering from drought conditions. A drought (or drouth [archaic]) is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”