different between dreary vs dreich

English

Etymology

From Middle English drery, from Old English dr?ori? (“sad”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?rews- (“to break, break off, crumble”), equivalent to drear +? -y. Cognate with Dutch treurig (“sad, gloomy”), Low German trurig (“sad”), German traurig (“sad, sorrowful, mournful”), Old Norse dreyrigr (“bloody”). Related to Old English dr?or (“blood, falling blood”), Old English drysmian (“to become gloomy”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d???i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d????i/
• Rhymes: -???i, -??i

Adjective

dreary (comparative drearier or more dreary, superlative dreariest or most dreary)

1. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.

   It had rained for three days straight, and the dreary weather dragged the townspeople's spirits down.

   Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...
2. (obsolete) Grievous, dire; appalling.

Derived terms

• drear
• drearihead
• drearihood
• drearily
• dreariment
• dreariness
• drearisome

Translations

Anagrams

• Ardrey, Drayer, yarder, yarred

English

Alternative forms

• dree, dreigh

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots dreich.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [d?i?x]

Adjective

dreich (comparative more dreich, superlative most dreich)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland) Bleak, miserable, dismal, cheerless, dreary.

Related terms

• dree

Anagrams

• chider, herdic, riched

Irish

Noun

dreich f sg

1. dative singular of dreach (“front”)

Mutation

Further reading

• "dreich" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Scots

Etymology

From Old English *dr?oh < Proto-Germanic *dreuga- (compare Proto-Germanic *dreugaz). Possibly influenced by Brythonic, e.g. Welsh drycin (“bad weather”) < drwg (“bad”) +? hin (“weather”).

Distantly cognate with English drudge, dree, and German trügen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dri?x/, /dri?ç/

Adjective

dreich (comparative mair dreich, superlative maist dreich)

1. persistent, continuous, relentless
2. slow, tardy
3. dismal, dowie, dreary, bleak
   • 2000, Matthew Fitt, But n Ben A-Go-Go, Luath 2000, p.132:

     The dreich inhuman blue on Nadia's lang-wheesht thocht-screen fizzed intae life.

4. tedious, wearisome, drawn-out
5. reluctant, tight-fisted, driving a hard bargain

Derived terms

• dreichly
• deid dreich
• dreich in the draw