Why Drive and not Forward?

Ever get one of those HUH? questions stuck in your head? Here's the one 
posed to me by a neighbor.
How did PRNDL become the standard nomenclature for automatic
transmissions?

P- Park - Makes sense because that it what it does.
R- Reverse - Same as above.
N- Neutral - Ditto

D- Drive, Well you do "drive " the vehicle but why not F- Forward?

L- Low (or some variant of low) Lowest forward gear.

I didn't have a real definite answer for her. The closest I came up with 
was that it was easier to say "Prindle" than "Prinfle"

So anyone got some time to kill?

-- 
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York