Elves is the plural form of the noun elf, which refers to a fantasy creature. In early folklore, elves were known as mischievous creatures that … Check out words from the year you were born and more! 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'? Elves have been part of Germanic folklore since medieval times, where they were usually depicted as having a similar appearance to humans. malarkey The plural of elf is elves. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! And of course, Santa Claus relies on a workforce of these tiny individuals to make the toys he delivers to children every December. The Plural of Elf The plural of elf is elves. Compare German elf, West Frisian alve, English eleven, Danish elleve. a diminutive person, especially a child. . Displaced native alf, from the same Germanic source. Compare Dutch elf, West Frisian alve, English eleven, Danish elleve. Modern use of the word elf almost always shows up in the plural as elves, with the spelling elfs turning up on infrequent occasions: Size doesn’t matter much in the world of elves. Serf, for example, gets pluralized with a standard –s: serfs. From Middle Dutch ellef, elf, from Old Dutch *ellef, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif, a compound of *ainaz and *-lif. The voiceless \f\ sound that ends these words became a voiced \v\ simply by habit of speech when the word in question was pluralized. Any from a race of mythical, supernatural beings resembling but seen as distinct from human beings. At various times, elves were believed to cause illness in humans or cattle; to cause people to have bad dreams by sitting upon them while they slept; or to swoop in and steal young children, replacing them with changelings. Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” describes the visitor as “a right jolly old elf.” In 1850, Louisa May Alcott completed a manuscript entitled Christmas Elves, but it was never published. In the Highlands of Scotland, new-born children are watched till the christening is over, lest they should be stolen or changed by some of these phantastical existences.”. From Middle High German einlif, eilef, elf, from Old High German einlif, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif, a compound of *ainaz and *-lif. A noun comparable to elf that went its own route when it came to establishing a plural is dwarf. Chief, despite ending in the same three letters as thief, gets pluralized as chiefs. The preferred plural of elf is elves, following the grammar of shelf and shelves or wolf and wolves. Delivered to your inbox! If you are familiar with the. Learn a new word every day. The appearance of elves in Christmas narratives became prominent in the United States in the 19th century. In the epic poem Beowulf, which dates to around the 10th century, elves (rendered as ylfe) are among a “woeful breed” of creatures descended from the biblical son Cain. noun, plural elves [elvz]. Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Norse mythology: luminous spirit dwelling in Álfheim, fantasy: magical, typically forest-guarding creature, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=elf&oldid=60906901, English terms inherited from Middle English, English terms derived from Middle English, English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic, English terms derived from Proto-Germanic, English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European, English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European, Afrikaans terms inherited from Middle Dutch, Afrikaans terms derived from Middle Dutch, Afrikaans terms inherited from Proto-Germanic, Afrikaans terms derived from Proto-Germanic, Dutch terms inherited from Proto-Germanic, Dutch terms derived from Proto-West Germanic, Dutch Low Saxon terms inherited from Low German, Dutch Low Saxon terms derived from Low German, Dutch Low Saxon terms inherited from Middle Low German, Dutch Low Saxon terms derived from Middle Low German, Dutch Low Saxon terms inherited from Old Saxon, Dutch Low Saxon terms derived from Old Saxon, German terms inherited from Middle High German, German terms derived from Middle High German, German terms inherited from Old High German, German terms derived from Old High German, German terms inherited from Proto-Germanic, German Low German terms inherited from Middle Low German, German Low German terms derived from Middle Low German, German Low German terms inherited from Old Saxon, German Low German terms derived from Old Saxon, Middle English terms inherited from Old English, Middle English terms derived from Old English, Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic, Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic, Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic, Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic, Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European, Middle English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European, Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation, Pennsylvania German terms with IPA pronunciation, Pennsylvania German terms inherited from Rhine Franconian, Pennsylvania German terms derived from Rhine Franconian, Pennsylvania German terms inherited from Old High German, Pennsylvania German terms derived from Old High German, Requests for pronunciation in Maltese entries, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This entry needs pronunciation information. Tolkien, “The Hobbit Play” will feature 44 M.V. In Germanic folklore, the term elf referred to any of a variety of creatures, usually of small stature, not necessarily out to cause harm but always mischievous. Compare German elf, Dutch elf, English eleven. They often had supernatural powers, and … But the popular fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien preferred the plural form dwarves in his works, possibly as a deliberate echo of elves: As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. fracking From Rhine Franconian, from Old High German einlif. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the elves are almost as small as insects. — The M.V. The mischievous creature known as the elf seems to turn up in all kinds of narrative universes—from the Brothers Grimm to Middle Earth to Harry Potter. Elves were a ripe subject for poets ranging from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Dryden, though no consensus could seem to be reached on how to render the plural. ), 10 May 2019, Santa will fly in with two of his elfs, and Santa’s chair will be propped up so children can see Santa. Download Grammarly's app to help with eliminating grammar errors and finding the right words. Then there are those nouns that end in –fe: wife and knife become wives and knives. This rule doesn’t apply to all such nouns, however. This page was last edited on 23 October 2020, at 14:36. Presidential debate about migration. Spikes During Presidential Debate, Study Up With Our Official SCRABBLE Dictionary. Related to German elf. /ɛlvz/. Although elfs may occasionally be found in print the accepted modern plural form of elf is elves. The appearance of elves in Christmas narratives became prominent in the United States in the 19th century. Biden's favorite word? Times (Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. That might have been due partly to popular perception of elves as distinctly belonging to past times, leading to a scarcity of the word’s occurrence in then-contemporary prose. The plural for the Tolkien creatures is usually elfowie. What is the plural of elf? As plurals of elf, both elfs and elves have long histories in English, and there is plenty of precedent for both, but elves has always been the more common form by far, and it remains so to this day. elf (third-person singular simple present elfs, present participle elfing, simple past and past participle elfed). A world in which elves exist and magic works offers greater opportunities to digress and explore. Charter School students … there will be singing dwarves, dancing hobbits, and elves, along with other characters—Gollum, trolls, goblins, and even a dragon. This follows the common method of pluralizing nouns in English ending in an –f … (in folklore) one of a class of preternatural beings, especially from mountainous regions, with magical powers, given to capricious and often mischievous interference in human affairs, and usually imagined to be a diminutive being in human form; sprite; fairy. The preferred plural of elf is elves, following the grammar of shelf and shelves or wolf and wolves. From Low German, from Middle Low German elvene, from Old Saxon ellevan. Tolkien, The Hobbit, 1937, In a foreword to The Hobbit, Tolkien acknowledged that dwarfs was the “only correct plural” of dwarf, but that he had opted for dwarves “only when speaking of the ancient people to whom Thorin Oakenshield and his companions belonged.”.
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