cave

Pronunciation

• IPA: /keɪv/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French cave (“a cave, vault, cellar”),^[2][3][4] from Latin cava (“hollow places”), the noun use of the neuter plural (or feminine) of cavus (“hollow”),^[2][3][5] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *keue- (“to swell; vault, hole”),^[3][2] also the source of Greek κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”).^[2] It replaced Old English eorðscrafu.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hollow place in the earth opening more or less horizontally: about 1220 in the OED, before 1250 in Barnhart, the early 13th century in Etymonline.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Any hollow is from 1605.^[6] The verb, to hollow out, is from the early 15th century.^[3] To collapse, usually cave in, is by 1707 in American English, probably from East Anglian dialect calve, to fall in and leave a hollow, influenced by cave;^[3][7][2] to yield under pressure is from 1837.^[3] In British politics a cave was a group that broke away from its party, after the Cave of Adullam in the Bible (1866).^[6][8] Caving as a sport is from the mid-20th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1220 – an underground hollow.^[6]
• early 15th century – to hollow out.^[3]
• 1707 – to collapse.^[3][2]
• 1837 – to give in.^[3]
• 1866 – a political secession.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A natural hollow under the ground or in a hill or cliff, with an opening to the surface.
2. (British history) A group breaking away from a political party.

Verb

1. (usually with in) To collapse or fall inward.
2. (usually with in) To give in under pressure.
3. To explore caves.

Word family

• caver
• cavelike
• cavefish
• caveman
• Wind Cave
• cave art
• cave bear
• cave dweller

Related words

• cavern
• cavity
• concave
• excavate
• cage
• caveat

Usage notes

Latin cave (“beware!”), from cavēre, was used as schoolboy slang for a warning that a teacher was coming, from the mid-19th century; it is pronounced differently.^[9][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press