Drift and Drive Derivations

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

My name is Cammie.

I’m based in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.

And I had a question about a phrase that my mom always said, and so I always said it.

And that is just the phrase, if you catch my drift.

And we, I use this usually when I’m sort of implying something sort of like a nudge nudge kind of phrase. And I was writing it in an email the other day, and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe the person that I was writing to maybe hadn’t seen that phrase or, you know, my family is kind of notorious for making up phrases, and then I think they’re ubiquitous and use them in conversation and people look at me like, what are you talking about?

So I got to thinking, like, where did this come from?

Is this a nautical term?

Like, what is this actually, what’s the origin of this phrase?

So catch my drift.

I’m just imagining maybe there are young kids present, and you’re trying to insinuate something adult.

So to the other person, you’re like, you catch my drift, so you don’t have to explain it in detail.

Yes, yeah.

You’re definitely insinuating something.

I think we’re catching your drift, too, Cammie.

I think we are catching it.

Yeah, we’re catching your drift.

And yeah, it’s really tempting to think of it as a nautical term because so many terms in English come from nautical language.

But what’s really interesting about the expression, if you catch my drift, is the fact that drift is a linguistic relative of drive.

They both come from the same ancient Germanic root that means to push along.

And by the 16th century in English, the word drift could mean something that a person is driving at, their purpose or their intention.

So then drift came to signify the meaning, like the drift of your argument or the drift of your story.

And then by the early 19th century, we see phrases like to catch someone’s drift or to get the drift,

Meaning that you’re understanding what the person is saying, even if the person doesn’t say it explicitly.

So when I say I see what you’re driving at, that’s directly related to I’m catching your drift.

I’m catching your drift, Grant, yes.

How about that?

Right.

It’s like a vocal or linguistic wink.

That’s a great way to put it.

Can I borrow that?

Yes, absolutely.

Linguistic wink.

I like that.

So we could have used drift in this kind of figurative way as far back as the 1500s, but here we are 500 years later still using it that way.

I love that so much.

I really appreciate all of your backstory on this phrase.

It’s something that I just never thought of.

It was something I’ve always used.

It’s nice to know that I’m driving at something real.

There you go.

Thanks for your call, Kami.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for having me on the show.

Yeah, be well.

Bye-bye.

Take care, Kami.

Bye-bye.

Well, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

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