Droupen

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic verb meaning to hang down limply, or to sink low in body or spirit through weariness or sorrow
2. To sag or wilt downward, as a drooping plant or head might, or to grow faint and downcast in spirit
3. An old Scots and Middle English verb describing something that hangs loosely, or a person who has become listless and gloomy

Etymology: "Droupen" is a Scots and northern English verb meaning to droop or hang down limply, and it survives mainly in Scots dialect and in older northern writing. It is a descendant of Middle English "drupen," which came from Old Norse "drúpa," meaning to droop or hang the head. The Norse word is closely related to the Old English "dropian," the source of modern "drop," so the two verbs are cousins from the same ancient root. The Old Norse form reached northern England and Scotland through the Viking settlements of the ninth and tenth centuries, when Scandinavian speakers settled across the Danelaw and the north. Because those areas kept Norse-influenced vocabulary long after the south had moved on, "droupen" stayed in use there while the standard English form "droop" took over elsewhere. The verb is a good example of how regional dialects preserve older sounds. Its vowel and ending reflect a stage of the word that standard English dropped, so the Scottish form still shows the Norse ancestry more clearly than "droop" does.