eve

English

Etymology

From a variant of the Middle English noun even (itself from Old English ǣfen), with a pre-1200 loss of the terminal '-n', which was mistaken for an inflection. See also the now archaic or poetic even (“evening”), from the same source.

In medieval Europe, days were considered to extend from sunset to sunset rather than midnight to midnight, so the night before a holiday was considered part of it, hence its "eve".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iːv/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv
• Homophones: eave, Eve

Noun

eve (plural eves)

1. The day or night before, usually used for holidays, such as Christmas Eve.
2. (archaic, poetic) Evening, night.
   • Mid-19th century, John Clare, Autumn:

     I love to see the shaking twig / Dance till the shut of eve

   • 1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, chapter XXVII, in A Shropshire Lad, lines 42–43:

     And has she tired of weeping / As she lies down at eve.

   • 2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 79:

     Sitting on the dockside at Oban, watching the to-ing and fro-ing in the harbour on a perfect summer's eve, I reflect on a trip which has taken me through our busiest cities to traverse the country's main lines, as well as explore some of the furthest extremities that were literally out on a limb.

4. (figurative) The period of time when something is just about to happen or to be introduced

   Antonyms: evening, winter

   the eve of a scientific discovery

Synonyms

• (evening): een, eventide, forenight; see also Thesaurus:evening

Derived terms

• yestereve

Related terms

• evening
• even

Translations

References

Further reading

• “eve”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• EeV, Vee, vee

Aiwoo

Numeral

eve

1. three

References

• Ross, M. & Næss, Å. (2007) “An Oceanic origin for Äiwoo, the language of the Reef Islands?”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 46, number 2. Cited in: "Äiwoo" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

Ewe

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeve/

Numeral

eve

1. two

Finnish

Etymology

Slang, from ekstaasi (folk-etymologically connected with the nickname Eve, with which it is unrelated)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeʋe/,
• Rhymes: -eʋe
• Syllabification^(key): e‧ve

Noun

eve (slang)

1. ecstasy (drug)

Declension

Synonyms

• ekstaasi

Anagrams

• vee

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

eve (present tense ever, past tense eva or evet, past participle eva or evet)

1. (reflexive) to wait, doubt, drag one's feet

References

• “eve” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• Homophone: æve

Etymology 1

From Old Norse efa, ifa. Compare also with earlier ivast.

Alternative forms

• (verb): eva (a- and split infinitives)
  • (Aasen) æva, ivast
• (noun): (Aasen) Æve

Verb

eve (present tense evar, past tense eva, past participle eva, passive infinitive evast, present participle evande, imperative eve/ev)

1. (reflexive) to wait, doubt, drag one's feet

Noun

eve m (definite singular even, indefinite plural evar, definite plural evane)

1. doubt, uncertainty

Etymology 2

Related to eva (Etymology 2) and ev.

Alternative forms

• eva (non-standard since 2012)

Noun

eve f (definite singular eva, indefinite plural ever, definite plural evene)

1. trace, rest

References

Old French

Etymology

Latin aqua.

Noun

eve oblique singular, f (oblique plural eves, nominative singular eve, nominative plural eves)

1. Alternative form of iaue; water

Rapa Nui

Noun

eve

1. buttocks

Turkish

Noun

eve

1. singular dative of ev

Zazaki

Alternative forms

• ev (southern zazaki)

Article

eve

1. the