Ca. 1600, fromMiddle Low Germandrōne (variant of commonerdrāne), fromOld Saxondrāna, fromProto-West Germanic*drānu, fromProto-Germanic*drēnuz.
The Low German form replaced olderTren(e),Trän(e), fromMiddle High Germantren(e), fromOld High Germantreno, from the Germanicablaut variant*drenô. This may have been reinforced by the desire to avoid homonymy withTräne(“tear”). The word was originally a masculine but became feminine in Early Modern German, probably under the influence ofBiene(“bee”). Drones were at that time distinguished only by function; the fact that they were males was generally unknown. The aircraft sense is asemantic loan from cognateEnglishdrone.
Drohne f (genitiveDrohne,pluralDrohnen)
Drohne on the German Wikipedia.Wikipediade