From Old English (before 12th century), from Proto-Indo-European '*dhers-' ("to be bold, to dare"), from PIE *dhers- ("to be bold, to dare").
To have the courage to do something; to challenge someone to do something bold or risky.
From Old English 'durran' (to dare, to have courage), from Proto-Germanic '*durzaną' (to dare), from PIE root *dhers- (to dare, to be bold). This is one of English's oldest preterite-present verbs — a verb whose present tense was originally a past tense, like 'can,' 'may,' and 'shall.' The PIE root *dhers- also produced Greek 'thrasýs' (θρασύς, bold, audacious) and
'Dare' is a preterite-present verb — its present tense 'I dare' was originally a past tense form meaning 'I have dared (and therefore I know I can).' This is why it behaves oddly: 'I dare not' (no 'do'), 'dare I?' (inverted like 'can I?'). It shares this ancient grammatical quirk with 'can,' '