From Old English 'drugath' (dryness), sharing its PIE root *dhreugh- with 'dry,' 'drain,' and 'drink.'
A prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water.
From Middle English droughte, from Old English drūgaþ (dryness, a period without rain), a noun derived from drūgian (to dry out, to become dry), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (dry, solid), from PIE *dhreugh- (to be firm, solid; to become dry and hard). The full chain: PIE *dhreugh- → Proto-Germanic *draugiz → Old English drūgian → drūgaþ → Middle English droughte → drought. The same Proto-Germanic root *draugiz produced
The words 'drought,' 'dry,' 'drain,' 'drench,' and 'drink' all come from the same PIE root *dhreugh- (dry, firm). The connection between 'dry' and 'drink' seems paradoxical but makes etymological sense: the original concept was the state of dryness, and 'to drink' was 'to remedy dryness.' Similarly, 'to drench' originally meant 'to cause to drink' (as in drenching an animal with medicine