# driver
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English drivere, dryvere, dryvare, equivalent to drive +‎ -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Drieuwer (“driver”), Dutch drijver (“driver”), German Low German Driever (“driver”), German Treiber (“driver”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈdɹaɪ.və(ɹ)/
* (US) enPR: drīʹvər, IPA: /ˈdɹaɪvɚ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)

### Noun

driver (plural drivers)
* One who drives something, in any sense of the verb drive.
** 2016, John Swain, Digging Up The Pitmen, page 164:Luke North was working in the North East District when Harry Patterson the pony driver came by. It was 5.45 o'clock. Luke smelt danger in the air. He walked round the pony to speak with Harry […]
* Something that drives something, in any sense of the verb drive.
** 2014, Bridgette Wessels, Exploring Social Change: Process and Context, page 106:The character of work is a driver of social change, at the same time that any new forms of work are the result of broader social change.
** 2020 December 16, “Network News: "Robust case" for Fawley branch reopening”, in Rail, page 14:The aim is to secure up to £140 million for the combined road and rail improvements, including a new road bridge to replace a level crossing at Totton. A key driver has been the approval of a new housing and employment development called Fawley Waterside, with 1,500 homes planned on the site of a redundant power station on the edge of Southampton Water.
* A person who drives a motorized vehicle such as a car or a bus.
    The requirement that every moving vehicle or combination of vehicles shall have a driver is deemed to be satisfied while the vehicle is using an automated driving system which complies with domestic technical regulations, and any applicable international legal instrument, […] and domestic legislation governing operation.
** 2024 December 25, Elaine S. Povich, “Self-driving cars aren’t here yet, but states are getting the rules ready”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began an investigation into four crashes of Teslas operating with a partial-automation system (which can navigate highways and steer the car on city streets but requires a licensed driver to be present), including one in which a pedestrian was killed. In a news release, NHTSA said reduced visibility may have led to the crashes.
* A person who drives some other vehicle.
* (aviation, slang) A pilot (person who flies aircraft).
* (computing) A device driver; a program that acts as an interface between an application and hardware, written specifically for the device it controls.
* (golf) A golf club used to drive the ball a great distance.
** 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major:The brassey much resembled the driver, but the iron opened out quite a new field of practice; […]
* (nautical) a kind of sail, smaller than a fore and aft spanker on a square-rigged ship, a driver is tied to the same spars.
* A factor contributing to something; a cause.
* A mallet.
* A tamping iron.
* A cooper's hammer for driving on barrel hoops.
* A screwdriver.
** 1996, Popular Mechanics, volume 173, number 12:Among the driver and screw types available, you'll find several cross-slot varieties including the Reed & Prince […]
* (audio) A device that converts an electrical signal to sound waves; the principal component of loudspeakers and headphones.
* (chiefly in the plural) A driving wheel.
** 1949 November and December, K. Longbottom, “By Goods Train to Gweedore”, in Railway Magazine, page 353:With a toot on her chime whistle, No. 6 set her 3 ft. 9 in. drivers turning and we were off round the curve through Pennyburn works.

#### Derived terms

* back-seat driver
* blip driver
* bus driver
* cab driver
* cabdriver
* camel driver
* cattle driver
* chauffeur driver
* coach driver
* codriver
* combine driver
* crane driver
* daily driver
* Death Valley driver
* designated driver
* device driver
* drink-driver
* drink driver
* driver ant
* driver-ant
* driver-boom
* driveress
* driver fatigue
* driverless
* driver licence
* driverly
* driver-only operation
* driver reviver
* driverside
* driver's license
* driver transistor
* driver tube
* driver valve
* driver-yard
* drunk driver
* engine driver
* getaway driver
* ghost driver
* impact driver
* in the driver's seat
* L-driver
* lorry driver
* mass driver
* minidriver
* multidriver
* Negro-driver
* non-driver, nondriver
* nutdriver
* nut driver
* oncodriver
* paper driver
* pen-driver
* pile driver
* piledriver
* pill driver
* quill-driver
* race car driver
* racing driver
* scoop driver
* screwdriver
* self-driver
* shuttle-driver
* shuttle driver
* single-driver
* slave driver
* slave-driver
* stake-driver
* student driver
* Sunday driver
* taxi driver
* tractor driver
* tram driver
* truck-driver
* truck driver
* truck driver tan
* wooldriver
* wrong-way driver

#### Descendants

* → Japanese: ドライバー (doraibā)
** → Hakka: 多拉把 (tô-lai-pá, tô-lai-pà, tò-lái-pà)
** → Hokkien: 螺賴把 / 螺赖把 (lo͘-lài-bà)
* → Hokkien: 嚦峇 / 呖峇 (lē-bā)
* → Scottish Gaelic: draibhear

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### See also

* chauffeur
* conductor
* pilot
* rider

## French
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from English driver.

#### Alternative forms

* driveur

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /dʁaj.vœʁ/

#### Noun

driver m (plural drivers)
* (golf) driver

### Etymology 2

Adapted borrowing of English drive +‎ -er.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /dʁaj.ve/

#### Verb

driver
* (golf outside Louisiana, Cajun) to drive

##### Conjugation
### Further reading

* “driver”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* verdir

## Italian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English driver.

### Noun

driver m or f by sense (invariable)
* driver (in a trotting race; tennis player good at driving)

### Noun

driver m (invariable)
* driver (golf club; computer module)

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Verb

driver
* present tense of drive

#### Derived terms

* (of the noun) pådriver

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English driver.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈdɾaj.veʁ/ [ˈdɾaɪ̯.veh]
* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈdɾaj.veʁ/ [ˈdɾaɪ̯.veh]
** (São Paulo) IPA: /ˈdɾaj.veɾ/ [ˈdɾaɪ̯.veɾ]
** (Rio de Janeiro) IPA: /ˈdɾaj.veʁ/ [ˈdɾaɪ̯.veχ]
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /ˈdɾaj.veɻ/ [ˈdɾaɪ̯.veɻ]

### Noun

driver m (plural drivers)
* (computing) driver (program acting as interface between an application and hardware)
    Synonym: controlador
** 2008, “Implementação do sistema de arquivos” (chapter 11), in Daniel Vieira, transl., Sistemas Operacionais com Java, 7th edition, Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier Brasil, translation of Operating System Concepts with Java by Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, and Greg Gagne, →ISBN, page 311, column 1:As informações de boot podem ser armazenadas em uma partição separada. Mais uma vez, ela tem seu próprio formato, pois, no momento do boot, o sistema ainda não carregou drivers de dispositivo do sistema de arquivos e, por isso, não pode interpretar o formato do sistema de arquivos.[original: Boot information can be stored in a separate partition. Again, it has its own format, because at boot time the system does not have file-system device drivers loaded and therefore cannot interpret the file-system format.]

### Further reading

* “driver”, in iDicionário Aulete (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
* “driver”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
* “driver”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
* “driver”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025

## Swedish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English driver.

### Noun

driver c
* (golf) a driver (club)

#### See also

* putter

### Verb

driver
* present indicative of driva

### References

* driver in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* driver in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

### Anagrams

* vrider