Noun: helve
| Singular | helve |
| Plural | helves |
Sample Sentences
-
It was the bad ax-helve someone had sold me— / “Made on machine,” he said, plowing the grain […] [1917, Robert Frost, "The Ax-helve":]
-
Happily they were only sketchily armed, the group-leaders carried pistols and pick-helves. [1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 847:]
Nouns inflected like helve
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle English helfe, helve; from Old English hielfe, from Proto-Germanic *halbiją. Probably cognate to English half, although Etymonline claims relation from halter and helm. See: Middle English Nouns '
helfe', Old English Nouns '
hielfe', English Nouns '
half'.