elf – Middle English noun declension

Middle English noun forms of elf

Noun: elf
Sg.elf
Pl.elves

Genitive

Dative

Sample Sentences

  • Scho was so faire & so fresche · as faucon hire semed, / An elfe out of an-othire erde · or ellis an Aungell (She was so fair and beautiful; her elegance seemed like / An elf out of another world, or else an angel.) [c. 1450, Wars of Alexander, Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, passus 24, line 5258:]
  • he was takyn with an elfe / I saw it myself / when the clok stroke twelf / was he forshapyn (He was taken by an elf; I saw it myself. / When the clock struck twelve, he was transfigured.) [c. 1450, “The Second Shepherds' Play”, in The Towneley Plays, Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, line 616:]

Nouns inflected like elf

baillif, keverchef, actyf, wharf, elf, lof, houswyf, passyf, delf, kerf, wolf,

Etymology

From Old English elf, ælf, Anglian form of ielf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”). See: Old English Nouns 'elf'.

Verbs referencing "elf"

English Nouns elf.

Translations