# drighten

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈdɹaɪ.tən/

## Definitions
1. A lord; ruler; sovereign; chief; leader; prince.
2. The Lord; Lord God; Christ.

## Etymology
Borrowed from Middle English drighte, drightin and its etymon Old English dryhten (“a ruler, king, lord, prince, the supreme ruler, the Lord, God, Christ”), from Proto-West Germanic *druhtin, from Proto-Germanic *druhtinaz (“leader, chief, lord”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to hold, hold fast, support”).
Cognate with Old Frisian drochten (“lord”), Old Saxon drohtin (“lord”), Old High German truhtin, Middle High German truhten, trohten (“ruler, lord”) (obsolete German Trechtin, Trechtein (“lord, God”)), Danish drot (“king”), Swedish drott (“king, ruler, sovereign”), Icelandic dróttinn (“hero, ruler, lord”), Finnish ruhtinas (“sovereign prince”). Related also to Old English dryht (“troop, army”), Old English ġedryht (“troop, body of men”), Old English drēogan (“to serve in the military, endure”). More at dree. By surface analysis, dright (“army, host”) + -en.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/drighten