Etymologically
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grove

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 15:35. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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
  • 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)