From Proto-Indo-European *der-, *dr- (“to tear, rip, split”) (whence also dīrāt (“to skin, flay”)), with a suffix *-eh₂, yielding *dr-eh₂ > drā-, and another suffix, either *-no-/*-nā-, or (according to Pokorny) *-p-an, with the p later reducing to zero (but still conserved in the Lithuanian and Sanskrit cognates). The semantic evolution was probably: “to skin” > “skin, fur” > “fabric”. Cognates include Lithuanian drãpana (“clothes, costume”) (dialectal also “handkerchief”, “piece of cloth”), Sanskrit द्रापिः (drāpíḥ, “coat, attire”).