An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/treiben

by Friedrich Kluge

treiben, verb, ‘to drive, impel,’ from the equivalent Middle High German trîben, Old High German trîban, strong verb; corresponding to Old Saxon drîƀan, ‘to drive, drive away, exercise,’ Dutch drijven, ‘to drive, carry on (a business), fly, swim,’ English to drive (Anglo-Saxon drîfan), Old Icelandic drífa, ‘to hasten,’ Gothic dreiban, ‘to drive.’ The Teutonic strong verbal root drī̆b (from Aryan dhrī̆bh ?, dhrī̆p?), ‘to move quickly, drive,’ has not yet been found in the other Aryan languages. See Trift.