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Origin and history of doze

doze(v.)

"to sleep lightly or fitfully; fall into a light sleep unintentionally," 1640s, probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse dusa "to doze," Danish døse "to make dull," Swedish dialectal dusa "to sleep") and related to Old English dysig "foolish" (see dizzy). Perhaps originally a dialect word in English and earlier than the attested date. Related: Dozed; dozing. As a noun, "a light sleep or slumber," from 1731. To doze off is by 1829.

also from 1640s

Entries linking to doze

dizzy(adj.)

Middle English dusie, from Old English dysig "foolish, stupid" (obsolete in the original sense except in dialect from 13c.), from Proto-Germanic *dusijaz (source also of Low German düsig "dizzy," Dutch duizelen "to be dizzy," Old High German dusig "foolish," German Tor "fool," Old English dwæs, Dutch dwaas "foolish"), perhaps from PIE *dheu- (1) "dust, vapor, smoke; to rise in a cloud" (and related notions of "defective perception or wits"). Old English used related dyslic to gloss Latin absurdum, which also seems to imply some defect of the senses (see absurd).

The meaning "having a whirling sensation" is from c. 1400; that of "giddy, thoughtless, heedless," is from c. 1500 and seems to merge the two earlier meanings. Used of the "foolish virgins" in early translations of Matthew xxv; used especially of blondes since 1870s. Related: Dizzily.

dozy(adj.)

"drowsy, inclined to sleep," 1690s, from doze + -y (2). Related: Dozily; doziness.

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    Trends of doze

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    slumber
    mid-14c., slomberen, "doze, drowse, sleep lightly," an alteration of slumeren (mid-13c.), frequentative form of slumen "to...doze," which is probably from Old English sluma "light sleep" (compare Middle Dutch slumen, Dutch sluimeren, Middle Low...
    Lollard
    The Dutch word means literally "mumbler, mutterer, one who mutters prayers and hymns," from lollen "to mumble or doze."...They were so called by critics who saw in them heretics pretending to humble piety, from lollen "to mumble or doze."...
    loll
    loosely;" late 14c., "rest at ease" (intransitive), a word of uncertain origin; perhaps related to Middle Dutch lollen "to doze...
    dozen
    , "collection of twelve things or units," from Old French dozaine "a dozen, a number of twelve" in various usages, from doze...
    dormant
    " from Latin dormire "to sleep," from PIE root *drem- "to sleep" (source also of Old Church Slavonic dremati "to sleep, doze...
    dote
    Wedgwood writes, "The radical sense seems to be to nod the head, thence to become sleepy, to doze, to become confused in...
    score
    left its trace in the language: In Old French, "twenty" (vint) or a multiple of it could be used as a base, as in vint et doze...
    sleeping
    c. 1300, present-participle adjective from sleep (v.). Sleeping Beauty (1729) is Perrault's La belle au bois dormant. Sleeping has been used since late 14c. to indicate diseases marked by morbid conditions. It is ill wakyng of a sleapyng dogge. [Heywood, 1562] It is nought goo
    pan
    "broad, shallow vessel of metal used for domestic purposes," Middle English panne, from Old English panne, earlier ponne (Mercian) "pan," from Proto-Germanic *panno "pan" (source also of Old Norse panna, Old Frisian panne, Middle Dutch panne, Dutch pan, Old Low German panna, Old
    off
    by c. 1200 as an emphatic form of Old English of (see of), employed in the adverbial use of that word. The prepositional meaning "away from" and the adjectival sense of "farther" were not firmly fixed in this variant until 17c., but once they were they left the original of with t

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