eaves

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English eves, also ovese,^[2][3] inherited from Old English efes, also yfes,^[4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *ubiswō (“porch, vestibule, eaves”).^[8][1][9] Its cognates include Old Frisian ose (“eaves”), Old High German obasa (“hall, porch”), Old Norse ups (“eaves”) and Gothic 𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌶𐍅𐌰 (ubizwa, “porch”).^{[4][5][10][11]} The OED takes the second Middle English form as a sign of a parallel Old English form *ofes.^[4][2] The OED, Hoad, Barnhart and Ayto probably derive the Germanic word from the same root as over,^{[4][10][5][12]} and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary name Proto-Indo-European *upo (“under, up from under”);^[8][6] Klein also compares German oben (“above”) and up.^[3] The final -s belonged to the stem and was later mistaken for a plural ending.^[4][10][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The edge of a wood: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in its annal for 894, has bí swá hwaðerre efese, "on whichever edge".^[4][5][11] The edge of a roof is recorded from before 1000,^[5] in the Lambeth Psalter, where a sparrow sits on efese oððe on þecene.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

Ayto gives the etymological meaning as "going over the edge, projecting".^[12] In Old English the word applied to the overhang of a roof or of the thatch of a stack and to the margin of a wood, a use that died out by about 1400.^[4][5] Skeat saw in it the clipped edge of a thatched roof,^[14] and an Old English verb efesian, to cut or trim, lasted until 1600; the OED takes it as apparently from the noun or its Germanic base.^[4] From before 1382 the word was extended to anything that projects a little, such as the brow of a hill in the Wycliffite Bible, and later the brim of a hat or the edge of a cloud.^[4][15] Old English efes was singular,^[13][16] but the final -s made speakers treat it as a plural, and a new singular eave arose:^[13][3][5] Etymonline places this in the 16th century,^[8] and the OED first records it in 1746.^[4] In the compound yfesdrype, the dripping of rainwater from the eaves, altered to evesdrop, the word gave eavesdropper, one who stood within that space to listen.^[5][12] In East Anglia eaves also meant the edges of enclosed grounds.^[17]

Timeline

• 894 – the edge of a wood (obsolete by about 1400).^[4][5]
• before 1000 – the overhanging edge of a roof or of the thatch of a stack.^[5][4]
• before 1200 – the Southwest Midland form eovese.^[5][2]
• before 1382 – anything that projects slightly, such as the brow of a hill.^[4]
• 1449 – evesdrop, the space on which rainwater falls from the eaves.^[5]
• 1746 – eave, used as the singular.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lower edge of a roof, which projects beyond the wall: Swallows nested under the eaves of the barn.^{[6][18][4][19]}
2. The corresponding overhang of thatch on a stack.^[4][19]
3. Any projecting edge, such as that of a hill or a hat.^[4][19]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1400) The edge of a wood.^[4][5]

Related words

• eavesdrop
• eave
• over
• up
• eavesdropper

Usage notes

Though the word was once singular, it now usually takes a plural verb,^[10][13] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged records it as either singular or plural in construction.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster