enclave

Etymology

It is borrowed from French enclave,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a noun formed from the verb enclaver (“to enclose, shut in”),^[7][2][8] from Old French enclaver (“to enclose, comprise, include”), recorded from the 13th century.^[3][4] The Oxford Dictionary of English glosses the Old French verb as "enclose, dovetail".^[9] It goes back to Vulgar Latin *inclāvō (“to shut in, lock up”), which the OED and Etymonline call Late Latin,^[5][4][2][3] formed from in- (“in”) and clāvis (“key”),^{[3][10][4][6]} from Proto-Indo-European *klau- (“hook”).^[3] The OED notes that Littré derived it instead from clāvus (“nail”),^[2] and Merriam-Webster relates the key word to claudō (“to close”).^[5] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1362 for "to enclose, surround".^[11] Middle English had the past participle enclaved, surrounded by land owned by another, borrowed from the French verb.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A portion of territory entirely surrounded by foreign land: 1868, in M. E. Grant Duff's Political Survey.^[2][3][5][4] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1865–70.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Before the noun, English had a verb enclave, to surround and isolate, from late Middle English, but it was rare before the late 19th century and is now taken from the noun.^[6] In heraldry an adjective enclave, later enclavé, from the French past participle, has been used since 1661 of a border shaped like a dovetail joint.^[2][6] Weekley noted that the noun was common in his day for the colonies on the African coast, and quoted Cotgrave's 1611 French senses "a mortaise, or inlocking" and "a march, bound, or limit of territory".^[12] From 1946 the word was also used of a group of people culturally or socially distinct from the people around them,^[2][6] and Merriam-Webster adds a city district inhabited by a particular group.^[5]

Timeline

• 1435 – the Middle English past participle enclaved, surrounded by another's land.^[4] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.^[3]
• 1661 – heraldic adjective, shaped like a dovetail joint.^[2][6]
• 1868 – noun, a territory surrounded by foreign territory.^[2][3][5][4]
• 1946 – a culturally or socially distinct group within a larger population.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A part of a country, or a small country, entirely surrounded by the territory of another, as seen from the surrounding state; compare exclave: The town is a Spanish enclave inside France.^{[13][5][2][6]}
2. A distinct group of people, or a district in which such a group lives, set apart from the surrounding population: an artists' enclave on the edge of the city.^[5][2][6]
3. (biology) Something enclosed within an organ or tissue but not continuous with it.^[5]
4. (ecology) A small community of one kind of plant, often a relict, in an opening within a larger plant community.^[5]

Verb

1. To surround or enclose within foreign territory; to make an enclave of.^[5][6]

Related words

• conclave
• exclave
• clavicle

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins