eaves
See also: Eaves
English
WOTD – 9 July 2021
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /iːvz/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ivz/
- Homophone: eves
- Rhymes: -iːvz
Etymology 1
| PIE word |
|---|
| *upér |
From Middle English eves (“projecting lower edge of a roof”) [and other forms],[1] from Old English efes, yfes, *ofes (“edge of a roof”), from Proto-West Germanic *ubisu (“hall”), from Proto-Germanic *ubiswō (compare Gothic 𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌶𐍅𐌰 (ubizwa), Old High German obasa (“hall; porch; roof”)), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upér (“above; over”) (whence over).[2][3]
Noun
eaves pl (plural only)
- (architecture) The underside of a roof that extends beyond the external walls of a building.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 16, column 2:
- Him that you term'd Sir, the good old Lord Gonzallo, / His teares runs downe his beard like winters drops / From eaues of reeds: […]
- a. 1645, John Milton, “Il Penseroso”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 42:
- Thus night oft ſee me in thy pale career, / Till civil-ſuited morn appeer, / […] / Or uſher'd with a ſhower ſtill, / When the guſt hath blown his fill, / Ending on the ruſsling Leaves, / With minute drops from off the Eaves.
- 1818 August, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Rosalind and Helen”, in Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 22:
- By my window bowered round with leaves, / And down my cheeks the quick tears ran / Like twinkling rain-drops from the eaves, / When warm spring showers are passing o'er: […]
-
- (by extension) Something that extends over or projects beyond.
- 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, canto I, page 14:
- But after many strains and heaves / He got up to the Saddle eaves.
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, canto LXV, page 92:
- The mystic glory swims away; / From off my bed the moonlight dies; / And closing eaves of wearied eyes / I sleep till dusk is dipt in gray: […]
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Alternative forms
Related terms
Translations
underside of a roof that extends beyond the external walls of a building
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Etymology 2
From eave + -s, from a misinterpretation of the -s ending of eaves as forming a plural.[2]
References
- “ēves, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- Compare “eaves, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020. - “eaves, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Anagrams
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