Etymologically
Log in

cave

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 12:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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