eve

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.^[1] 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".

• IPA^(key): /iːv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv
• Homophones: eave, Eve

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

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

• evening
• even

• “eve”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• EeV, Vee, vee

eve

1. three

• 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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈeve/

eve

1. two

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈeʋe/, [ˈe̞ʋe̞]
• Rhymes: -eʋe
• Hyphenation^(key): eve

eve (slang)

1. ecstasy (drug)

• ekstaasi

• vee

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

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

• “eve” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• Homophone: æve

From Old Norse efa, ifa.^[1] Compare also with earlier ivast.

• eva (verb, a- and split infinitives)
  • (Aasen) æva, ivast^[2]
• (noun): (Aasen) Æve^[3]

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

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

1. doubt, uncertainty

Related to eva (Etymology 2) and ev.^[1]

• eva (non-standard since 2012)

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

1. trace, rest

Latin aqua.

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

1. Alternative form of iaue; water

eve

1. buttocks

eve

1. singular dative of ev

• ev (southern zazaki)

eve

1. the