hive

English

Etymology

From Middle English hyve, from Old English hȳf, from Proto-West Germanic *hūfi (compare Dutch huif (“beehive”), Danish dialect huv (“ship’s hull”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kuHp- (“water vessel”) (compare Latin cūpa (“tub, vat”), Ancient Greek κύπη (kúpē, “gap, hole”), κύπελλον (kúpellon, “beaker”), Sanskrit कूप (kū́pa, “cave”)), from *kew- (“to bend, curve”). Doublet of coupe, cup, and keeve. The computing term was chosen as an in-joke relating to bees; see .

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /haɪv/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪv

Noun

hive (plural hives)

1. A structure, whether artificial or natural, for housing a swarm of honeybees.
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, lines 10–13:

     First, for thy Bees a quiet Station find, / And lodge 'em under Covert of the Wind: / For Winds, when homeward they return, will drive / The loaded Carriers from their Ev'ning Hive.

2. The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     When that the general is not like the hive, to whom the foragers shall all repair, what honey is expected?

3. A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd.
   • 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “[Experiments.] Boädicea”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., , →OCLC, stanza 3, page 170:

     There the horde of Roman robbers mock at a barbarous adversary. / There the hive of Roman liars worship a gluttonous emperor-idiot.

4. (computing, Microsoft Windows) A section of the registry.
   • 2006, Jean Andrews, Fixing Windows XP, page 352:

     Windows builds the registry from the five registry hives […]

   • 2011, Samuel Phung, Professional Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0:

     For devices built with hive-based registry implementation, the registry data are broken into three different hives — the boot hive, system hive, and user hive.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• apiary
• hives

Verb

hive (third-person singular simple present hives, present participle hiving, simple past and past participle hived)

1. (transitive)
   1. To collect (bees) into a hive.

      to hive a swarm of bees

   2. To store (something other than bees) in, or as if in, a hive.
      • 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, , →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

        Hiving wisdom with each studious year.

2. (intransitive)
   1. To form a hive-like entity.
   2. To take lodging or shelter together; to reside in a collective body.
      • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

        The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder, / Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day / More than the wild-cat; drones hive not with me; / Therefore I part with him; and part with him / To one what I would have him help to waste / His borrowed purse. […]

      • 1725, Alexander Pope, letter to Martha Blount

        to get into warmer houses, and hive together in cities

   3. (entomology) Of insects: to enter or possess a hive.

Derived terms

• hive off

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• hiva (a infinitive)

Etymology

From English heave, from Middle English heven, hebben, from Old English hebban, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to take up, lift”). Doublet of hevja.

Verb

hive (present tense hiv, past tense heiv, past participle hive, present participle hivande, imperative hiv)

1. (transitive) to lift, heave, tow
2. (transitive) to throw

References

• “hive” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.