Interesting observation. I have always wondered about English 'to drive' and its German counterparts treiben and fahren. Treiben and drive are cognates as are the less common English verb fare and fahren. There's also ride (and reiten). Like go (gehen) the various uses and meanings of these verbs is varied and irregular. Why do we, in American English, drive a car, but ride a bicycle / motorcycle / horse? In English, I can say I'm going to San Francisco and leave it up to the context whether I'm walking, driving, riding, flying, or going by public transportation. Drive has always, since Old English, had the extra meaning of to impel, and drive always reminds me, sooner or later, of Freud's sex drive (Geschlechtstrieb). There's also device drivers in computing terminology and a driver or driving wheels on locamotives. And what would golf be without drivers? Fare / fahren are related to the PIE *per / *por usually indicating forward; cf. Greek perao 'to drive right through', poros 'ford, ferry, means of passing a river', and Latin peritus 'skilled, practised, clever'.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.