lave – English noun declension

English noun forms of lave

Noun: lave
Singularlave
Plurallaves

Sample Sentences

  • Once more Arion and his loving nymph / Together rest within their summer cave, / In the green woodland, where the crystal lymph / Through sands and ivy pulsed with ceaseless lave. [1865 September, “Glimpses of Greek Fableland. Arion’s Return.”, in Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume LXVI, number CCCXCIII, Dublin: George Herbert, […]; London: Hurst & Blackett, →OCLC, page 350:]
  • When Nature, languid, seems to rest, / Nor moves a leaf, nor heaves a wave, / And Zephyrs sleep, by Sol caress'd, / And sportive swallows skim the lave; […] [1826, Bernard Blackmantle [pseudonym; Charles Molloy Westmacott], “Noon in the Isle of Wight”, in The English Spy: […], volume II, London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, […], →OCLC, page 168:]

Etymology

1. The verb is derived from Middle English laven (“to bathe, wash; to bail or draw water, drain, exhaust; to dampen, wet; to pour; of water, etc.: to flow, stream”), and then partly:
2. * from Old French laver (“to be washed; to wash”) (modern French laver (“to wash (oneself)”)), from Latin lavāre, the present active infinitive of lavō (“to bathe, wash; to dampen, wet”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”); and
3. * from Old English lafian (“to bathe; to make wet; to ladle out; to pour”), from Proto-West Germanic *labōn (“to refresh, revitalize; to strengthen”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Latin lavō (see above) but this does not explain the change in meaning from “to wash; to wet” to “to refresh; to strengthen”. Perhaps Old English lafian is derived directly from the Latin word, and Proto-West Germanic *labōn and words in languages derived from it such as Dutch and German are coincidentally similar to the Old English word.
4. The noun is derived from the verb. See: Latin Nouns 'lavāre', Old English Nouns 'lafian', Latin Nouns 'lavō', Old English Nouns 'lafian'.

Verbs referencing "lave"

Icelandic Nouns leif.