grove

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɡrəʊv/, US /ɡroʊv/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English grove, inherited from Old English grāf (“grove, copse, small wood”),^[2][3][4] related to grǣfa (“brushwood, thicket”),^[4][5][6] and perhaps to Norwegian greivla (“to branch out”).^[5] It has no certain cognates in other Germanic languages, and it cannot be derived by sound changes from grafan (“to dig”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small wood: 889.^[7][2] It appears in the place name Holgrove in 1128–35, and as Middle English grove probably before 1200, in Layamon.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Transferred and figurative groves are from 1667.^[7] The English Bible of 1535 used grove to translate a Hebrew word now understood as the name of a goddess, Asherah, and another now rendered as tamarisk tree.^[7] The groves of Academe are the shaded walks of the Academy at Athens.^[3] A suburban road lined with houses and trees is often called a Grove in street names.^[6] In Lincolnshire dialect a grove was a ditch or watercourse.^[8]

Timeline

• 889 – a small wood.^[7][2]
• 1128–35 – Holgrove (place name).^[2]
• 1535 – in Bible translation.^[7]
• 1667 – figurative groves.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A small wood or group of trees without dense undergrowth.
2. An orchard of fruit or nut trees.
3. A road lined with houses and often trees, especially in a suburb, often part of a street name.

Word family

• groved
• groveless

Related words

• mangrove
• greave

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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)