drab

Meanings

Noun

• A fabric, usually of thick cotton or wool, having a dull brownish yellow, dull grey, or dun colour.
• The colour of this fabric.
• Often in the plural form drabs: apparel, especially trousers, made from this fabric.
• A dull or uninteresting appearance or situation, unremarkable.
• A dirty or untidy woman; a slattern.
• A promiscuous woman, a slut; a prostitute.
• A small amount, especially of money.
• A box used in a saltworks for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.
• An instance of a transgender or non-binary person presenting as the gender corresponding to their sex assigned at birth instead of that corresponding to their internal gender identity (for instance, a trans woman dressed as a man).

Adjective

• Of the colour of some types of drabcloth: dull brownish yellow or dun.
• Particularly of colour: dull, uninteresting.

Verb

• To consort with prostitutes; to whore.

Origin

• Probably from Middle French and Old French drap, either:
• from Late Latin drappus, most likely from Gaulish *drappo, from Proto-Indo-European *drep-; or
• from Frankish *drapi, *drāpi, from Proto-Germanic *drap-, *drēp-, from *drepaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ-.
• The English word is cognate with Ancient Greek δρέπω, Avestan 𐬛𐬭𐬀𐬟𐬱𐬀, Lithuanian drãpanos, Old Norse trefja, trof, Sanskrit द्रापि, Serbo-Croatian drápati).
• The origin of the noun is Unknown; compare Middle English drabelen, drablen, draplen, and Low German drabbe, drabbeln, and Old Norse drabba, the latter three ultimately from Proto-Germanic *drepaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreb-. The word is also likely to be related to Dutch drab, Irish drabog, Scottish Gaelic drabag.
• The verb is derived from the noun.
• Probably related to drop.
• Unknown.
• Alteration of drag, possibly via the folk-etymological backronym "DRessed As a Girl" (with boy replacing girl).