dröge

Borrowed from Middle Low German drȫge (“dry”), from Old Saxon *drōgi, from Proto-Germanic *draugiz.

Also a Central German form; compare Ripuarian drüch, Luxembourgish dréchen (“dry”). Related to Upper German trocken and, in early modern German, used as a mere dialectal variant of it. In the contemporary sense reintroduced via German Low German (19th century). Cognate with dry and Dutch droog.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdrøːɡə/, /ˈdrœːɡə/

• Audio:

  (file)

dröge (strong nominative masculine singular dröger, comparative dröger, superlative am drögesten or am drögsten)

1. (regional, chiefly Northern Germany) dry
2. (regional, chiefly Northern Germany, figurative) dull; boring; humdrum (of activities and people)
   • 1920 [1910], Hermann Löns, Der Wehrwolf [The Warwolf]‎:

     Aber dann schlug er auf den Tisch: »Das ist mir ja ein dröges Löft! Nicht einmal ein Glas Wein und ein Stück Kuchen kriegt man vorgesetzt? I, daß ist doch sonst keine Weise hierzulande!«

     But then he pounded his fist on the table: “This is surely a dry engagement! A man isn’t even offered a glass of wine or piece of cake? Heh … that’s not the usual custom in these parts!”