Other forms: drafted, drafting, drafts
A draft is a version of something written that is not finished yet. The first draft of an essay, a rough draft on the back of an envelope, an email sitting in your drafts folder because you cannot decide how to end it.
The verb travels with it: you draft a letter, draft a contract, draft in an extra pair of hands. In American English draft also covers two things British English spells draught — a cold current of air moving through a room, and beer served from the barrel. And in the United States the draft is compulsory military service: he was drafted in 1969, draft card, draft-dodger; sport borrowed that sense for the system where teams pick new players, as in the NFL draft. One idea holds all of them together, and it is pulling: a draft of air is pulled through a house, a document is drawn up, a soldier is pulled out of the population.
1noundraftAn early, unfinished version of a piece of writing.
“The first draft was twice as long and half as clear.”
synonyms: rough copy, version
2verbwriteTo write an early or official version of a document.
“She drafted the letter on the train and rewrote it at home.”
3nouncompulsoryCompulsory enrolment into the armed forces (US).
“His brother left the country to avoid the draft.”
4verbselectTo select someone for military service, or for a team.
“He was drafted straight out of college by a team he had never watched.”
5nouncurrentA current of cold air moving through a room (US spelling of draught).
“There is a draft coming under that door.”
Draft is draught respelled the way it sounds, the same way laughter keeps a gh nobody says. Middle English draught meant that which is pulled or drawn, from Proto-Germanic drahtuz, a pulling — the root that also sits under draw and drag. A draught horse is named for what it pulls; a draft of a document is what you have drawn up so far.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰregʰ-
Proto-Germanic
*drahtuz — a pulling, drawing
Proto-West Germanic
*drahti
Old English
*dreaht
Middle English
draught
English, today
draft
Built from
A phonetic spelling of draught (compare laughter), from Middle English draught, draght (“that which is pulled; that which is drawn up, a design”), from Old English dreaht, dræht, from Proto-West Germanic drahti, drahtu, from Proto-Germanic drahtuz (“a pulling, drawing”). Cognate with Dutch dracht, German Tracht, Icelandic dráttur. by surface analysis, en + draw + t.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA