ebb

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English ebbe, also eb,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ebba (“ebb, low tide”),^[4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *abjô.^[1][8][3] It is cognate with Old Frisian ebba, Old Saxon ebbiunga, Middle Low German ebbe, Middle Dutch ebbe, Dutch eb^[5][3] and Old Norse efja (“countercurrent in a stream, river bend”).^[3][2][9] German Ebbe, Danish ebbe and Swedish ebb are not native in those languages, and French èbe was taken from English.^[4][10] The further origin is uncertain, according to the OED: the Germanic form might come from Proto-Germanic *ab (“off”), which gave of and off, or might be connected with Gothic 𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌺𐍃 (ibuks, “backward”).^[4] Most other dictionaries take the first view,^{[5][11][12][13][14][3]} and Etymonline and Wiktionary carry it back to Proto-Indo-European *apó (“off, away”),^[5][1] so that an ebb is literally a running off or away.^[11][13][12] Klein and Weekley favour the link with the Gothic word,^[10][15] and Partridge suggests a root Proto-Indo-European *ibh- (“to turn”).^[16] The verb is inherited from Middle English ebben, inherited from Old English ebbian (“to flow back, subside”), from the noun.^{[4][5][3][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The flowing back of the tide, in Old English: in the Battle of Maldon, "the flowing flood came after the ebb" (Com flówende flód æfter ebban).^[6][4] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1114 records so great an ebb that people crossed the Thames riding and on foot, east of the bridge in London.^[6] The verb ebbian is first recorded in the Old English Genesis.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The tidal sense has held from Old English to today.^[4][2] The move to a general decline came in the late Middle English period: for the noun before 1398 in Barnhart^[3] and about 1400 in the OED,^[4] and for the verb before 1420, in Hoccleve,^[4] although Etymonline finds a figurative use of the verb in late Old English.^[5] The noun also came to mean a low point of decline, as in at an ebb and at a low ebb, first recorded in Shakespeare's The Tempest.^[4] From attributive use, as in ebb tide, came an adjective meaning "shallow", recorded from about 1425.^[4] Trench notes that this general sense was once common, quoting Holland and Bishop Hall, and that nothing except water now ebbs, unless figuratively.^[17] The adjective lasted in Scots and northern dialects: ebb was said of shallow dishes, and of ploughing near the surface, and a Lancashire proverb said "Cross the stream where it is ebbest".^[18][17] In Shetland and Caithness the noun meant the foreshore, and in Shetland and Orkney to go to the ebb meant to gather shellfish at low water.^[18]

Timeline

• before 1000 – ebba, the flowing back of the tide; ebbian, to flow back.^[4][3]
• c. 1190 – the Middle English form ebbe.^[3]
• c. 1374 – verb, of water or blood, to sink lower or flow away, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.^[4]
• before 1398 – noun, decline, decay.^[3] The OED dates this to about 1400.^[4]
• before 1420 – verb, to decline or fade away.^[4]
• c. 1425 – adjective, shallow.^[4]
• before 1616 – a point of decline or depression, as in at a low ebb.^[4]
• 1699 – attributive use, as in ebb tide.^[19] Etymonline dates ebb tide to 1776,^[5] and Barnhart to 1837, in Marryat.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The flowing back of the tide from high to low water, or the time when this happens; opposed to flood: The fishing boats left on the ebb.^[2][9][4]
2. A gradual decline or falling away, or a low point reached in it, often in the phrase at a low ebb: Morale was at a low ebb that winter.^[2][9][4]

Verb

1. Of tidal water, to flow back or recede, often in the phrase ebb and flow: The sea began to ebb at noon.^[2][9][4]
2. To fall away or grow weaker; to fade or lessen, often with away: His patience slowly ebbed away.^[2][9][4]

Adjective

1. (dialect) Shallow; not deep.^[2][18][4]

Word family

• unebbing
• ebb tide
• ebb and flow

Related words

• of
• off

Usage notes

In English dialect ebb is also a name of the common bunting, recorded from 1802, which the OED queries as perhaps a separate word.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
17. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
18. ^ a b c 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)
19. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press