drown [ME] Although it makes its first appearance in the Middle Ages, drown probably existed in Old English. It was originally a northern English form, and is related to the old Scandinavian word drukkna ‘to be drowned’, which comes from the same root as *drink, in which people sometimes drown their sorrows. The idea that a drowning man will clutch at a straw has been expressed since the 16th century. Before the 20th century the proverb involved ‘catching’ at straws: clutch adds a vivid sense of desperation. Not waving but drowning is the title of a 1957 poem by the English poet and novelist Stevie Smith (1902–71): ‘I was much too far out all my life / And not waving but drowning.’