drown

Meaning

To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.
To kill by suffocating in water or another liquid.
To be flooded: to be inundated with or submerged in (literally) water or (figuratively) other things; to be overwhelmed.
To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.
To obscure, particularly amid an overwhelming volume of other items.

From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen, of obscure and uncertain origin.
The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian . Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, ġedruncnian (> Middle English drunknen, dronknen), "probably influenced" by Old Norse drukkna (cf. Icelandic drukkna, Danish drukne) . Funk & Wagnall's has 'of uncertain origin'. It has been theorised (see e.g. ODS) that it may represent a direct loan of Old Norse drukkna, but this is described by the OED as being "on phonetic and other grounds [...] highly improbable" , unless one considers the possibility of an unattested variant in Old Norse *drunkna.

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