elf

From Dutch elf, from Middle Dutch ellef, elf, from Old Dutch *ellef, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif.


elf

elf (nominative singular)
elfové (nominative plural)
elfa (genitive singular)
elfů (genitive plural)
elfovi (dative singular)
elfu (dative singular)
elfům (dative plural)
elfa (accusative singular)
elfy (accusative plural)
elfe (singular vocative)
elfové (plural vocative)
elfovi (locative singular)
elfu (locative singular)
elfech (locative plural)
elfem (instrumental singular)
elfy (instrumental plural)


elf

From Middle Dutch ellef, elf, from Old Dutch *ellef, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif, a compound of *ainaz and *-lif. Compare German elf, West Frisian alve, English eleven, Danish elleve.


elf

the number eleven, or a representation thereof

nl-noun

elf f (plural elven, diminutive elfje n)

elven (plural)
elfje (diminutive neuter)

Afrikaans: elf

Berbice Creole Dutch: alfu, elfu

Jersey Dutch: ālf

Negerhollands: elf, elef

Skepi Creole Dutch: elk

→ Sranan Tongo: erfu

→ Aukan: elufu

→ Saramaccan: elúfu


elf

(fantasy) elf (humanoid pointy-eared creature in fantasy)

elf m (plural elfen or elven, diminutive elfje n, feminine elve or elfin)

elfen (plural)
elven (plural)
elfje (diminutive neuter)
elve (feminine)
elfin (feminine)

→ Papiamentu: èlfye (from the diminutive)

Borrowed from German Elf, itself borrowed from English elf, from Old English ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Displaced native alf, from the same Germanic source.


elf

From Low German, from Middle Low German elvene, from Old Saxon ellevan. Related to German elf.


elf

[…] if theyr children at any time vvere frowarde and vvanton, they would ſay to them that the Guelfe or the Gibeline came. VVhich vvords novve from them (as many thinge els) be come into our vſage, and for Guelfes and Gibelines, we ſay Elfes & Goblins.

1579, E. K., “[Iune. Ægloga Sexta.] Glosse.”, in Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 25, recto:

The man whom heauens haue ordaynd to bee / The ſpouſe of Britomart, is Arthegall: / He wonneth in the land of Fayeree, / Yet is no Fary borne, ne ſib at all / To Elfes, but ſprong of ſeed terreſtriall, / And whylome by falſe Faries ſtolne away, / Whyles yet in infant cradle he did crall; / Ne other to himſelfe is knowne this day, / But that he by an Elfe was gotten of a Fay.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 433:

Their Robbin-good-fellowes, Elfes, Fairies, Hobgoblins of our latter age, which idolatrous former daies and the fantasticall world of Greece ycleaped Fawnes, Satyres, Dryades & Hamadryades, did most of their merry prankes in the Night.

1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, The Terrors of the Night or, A Discourse of Apparitions, London: […] Iohn Danter for William Iones, […]:

Every elf, and fairy sprite, / Hop as light as bird from brier.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

[…] I had rather have a Child which my Wife ſhould bring me, though by another man, then to have a Changeling brought me by a company of Fairies, Elfs and Goblins: […]

1649, ΕΙΚΩΝ Ἡ ΠΙΣΤΗ. Or, The Faithfull Pourtraicture of a Loyall Subject, in Vindication of ΕΙΚΏΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΉ. […], page 16:

The quarrel ſpreading into parties, called the Guelfs and the Gibellines, became at laſt the wonder and amazement of all good people: inſomuch as ſome are of opinion, that the fiction of the Elfs and Goblins, wherewith we uſe to fright young children, was derived from hence.

1657, Peter Heylyn, Cosmographie in Four Books. Containing the Chorographie and Historie of the Whole World, and All the Principal Kingdoms, Provinces, Seas, and Isles Thereof., 2nd edition, London: […] Henry Seile, […], page 131:

The opinion of Fairies and Elfs is very old, and yet ſticketh very religiously in the minds of ſome. But to root that rank opinion of Elfs out of mens hearts, the truth is, that there be no ſuch things, nor yet the ſhadows of the things, but only by a ſort of bald Friers and knaviſh ſhavelings ſo faigned; […]

1678, The Shepherds Calendar: Containing Twelve Æglogues, Proportionable to the Twelve Months. […], London: […] Henry Hills for Jonathan Edwin, […], page 26:

For there and ſeveral other places / About mill dams and green brae faces, / Both Elrich, Elfs and Brownies ſtayed, / And Green gown’d Farries daunc’d and played; […]

a. 1690, William Cleland, A Collection of Several Poems and Verses, Composed upon Various Occasions, published 1697, page 59:

IN Days of Old when Arthur fill’d the Throne, / Whoſe Acts and Fame to Foreign Lands were blown; / The King of Elfs and little Fairy Queen / Gamboll’d on Heaths, and danc’d on ev’ry Green.

1700, [John] Dryden, “The Wife of Bath Her Tale [by Geoffrey Chaucer]”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 479:

This Juno heard; And ſhall ſuch Elfs, ſhe cry’d, / Diſpute my Juſtice, or my Pow’r deride?

1717, Laurence Eusden, “Book IV. [The Transformation of the Theban Matrons.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 127:

[…]the Devaſtations under the Goths, Guelphs, and Gibelines [whence ſome would derive the Terms of Elfs (or Elves) or Fairies, and Goblins (or Hobgoblins) or Spectres, &c.] […]

1760, Andrew Brice, “TUSCANY”, in The Grand Gazetteer; or, Topographic Dictionary, &c., page 1322, column 1:

Farefolkis, fairies, elfs, or elves; […]

1802, J[ames] Sibbald, “Glossary; or An Explanation of Ancient Scottish Words”, in Chronicle of Scottish Poetry; from the Thirteenth Century, to the Union of the Crowns: To Which Is Added a Glossary, volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [F]or J. Sibbald, […], [b]y C. Stewart & Co. […]:

These Picts are the Clan Alpin, the Alps, or Elfs or Elves,—[…]

1850, Matthew Stewart, Remarks on the Subject of Language, with Some Observations in the Form of Notes, Illustrative of the Information Which Language May Afford of the History and Opinions of Mankind, London: […] Richard and John Edward Taylor, […], for, […] the Author, page 14:

Prithee, young one, who art thou, and what has ailed thy mother to bedizen thee in this strange fashion? Art thou a Christian child,—ha? Dost know thy catechism? Or art thou one of those naughty elfs or fairies, whom we thought to have left behind us, with other relics of Papistry, in merry old England?

1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Elf-Child and the Minister”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 130:

The next species of these airy nothings are the elfs, or elves; […]

1852, William Bell, Shakespeare’s Puck, and His Folkslore, Illustrated from the Superstitions of All Nations, but More Especially from the Earliest Religion and Rites of Northern Europe and the Wends, London, page 58:

The Arbhus became in Teutonic mythology the Alben, Elben or Elfen, our Elfs, and in Scandinavian the Alfar.

1868, S[abine] Baring-Gould, “The Piper of Hameln”, in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, second series, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co.; London: Rivingtons, page 173:

The elfs or elves were inhabitants of the fields and groves, the progenitors of the fairies of the middle ages; […]

1868, David Hume, William Cooke Stafford, The History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time; Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources, volume I, London, New York, N.Y.: The London Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, page 53, column 1:

Since you’ve been out, the news arrives / The Elfs’ Insurance Company’s gone.

1877, Sidney Lanier, “The Hard Times in Elfland. A Story of Christmas Eve.”, in [Mary Lanier], editor, Poems of Sidney Lanier, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1884, page 159:

Eve, Danish legend of her concealing her unwashed children, from whom come elfs, trolls, &c.

1879, William Henderson, “Index”, in Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders. […], London: […] [F]or the Folk-Lore Society by W. Satchell, Peyton and Co., […], page 364:

Much of fairy lore clusters around the so-called fairy rings, that is, the green circles in old pastures within which the elfs were supposed to dance at night by the light of the moon.

1889 May, “[Literary Notices.] The Folk-Lore of Plants. By T. F. Thiselton Dyer. […]”, in Popular Science, page 128, column 1:

NAT,[…]; a term applied to all spiritual beings, angels, elfs, demons, or what not, including the gods of the Hindus.

1903, Henry Yule, A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell, “NAT, s.”, in edited by William Crooke, Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive, London: John Murray, […], page 619, column 2:

Elfs and fays, from their haunts in the mountains, whistle their eerie ballads above the gray roof of “Dove Cottage,” and dance their ghostly jigs on the huge hearthstone, among whose blazing logs the Fire God paints his immortal canvases, with colorings splendid beyond the dream of man.

1917 November, Elizabeth Clendenning Ring, “Florence Earle Coates: Some Phases of Her Life and Poetry”, in The Book News Monthly, volume 36, page 109, column 1:

Alfs [elfs]: Another name for the elfs or elves.

2010, Heilan Yvette Grimes, The Norse Myths, Hollow Earth Publishing, →ISBN, page 254:

(Norse mythology) A luminous spirit presiding over nature and fertility and dwelling in the world of Álfheim (Elfland). Compare angel, nymph, fairy.

We may add, and our author has knowledge of the fact, that not even the Germans, those masterly delineators and imaginators of fairy-land, have shown greater or more exquisite insight into the lives and ways of elfs and fays than that which was shown by George Cruikshank.

1882 October 7, “The Life of George Cruikshank: in Two Epochs. By Blanchard Jerrold. […]”, in The Athenæum: Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama, number 2867, London: […] John C. Francis, […], page 471, column 1:

All the fairy tales of my childhood were conjured up before my startled imagination, and appeared to be realised in the forms which surrounded me; I saw the whole forest filled with trolls, elves, and sporting dwarfs.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281:

Any from a race of mythical, supernatural beings resembling but seen as distinct from human beings. They are usually delicate-featured and skilled in magic or spellcrafting; sometimes depicted as clashing with dwarves and orcs, especially in modern fantasy literature.

(fantasy) Any of the magical, typically forest-guarding races bearing some similarities to the Norse álfar (through Tolkien's Eldar).

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

Pomatomus saltatrix
Pomatomus saltatrix#Translingual

(South Africa) The bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).

en-noun

elf (plural elves or (now nonstandard) elfs)

elves (plural)
elfs (nonstandard plural)

A Dictionary of the English Language
Andrew Brice
Edmund Spenser
John Dryden
Laurence Eusden
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Oliver and Boyd
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Peter Heylyn
Sabine Baring-Gould
Sidney Lanier
Thomas Nashe
elf

→ Arabic: إِلْف (ʔilf)

→ Dutch: elf

→ French: elfe

→ German: Elf, Elfe

→ Japanese: エルフ (erufu)

→ Korean: 엘프 (elpeu)

→ Russian: эльф (elʹf)

→ Ukrainian: ельф (elʹf)

elf

Norse mythology: luminous spirit dwelling in Álfheim

elf

fantasy: magical, typically forest-guarding creature

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Ultimately probably derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”). Doublet of alf and oaf.


elf

My face I'll grime with filth, blanket my loins, elf all my hairs in knots, and with presented nakedness outface the winds and persecutions of the sky.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

(now rare) To twist into elflocks (of hair); to mat.

en-verb

elf (third-person singular simple present elfs, present participle elfing, simple past and past participle elfed)

elfs (present singular third-person)
elfing (participle present)
elfed (participle past)
elfed (past)


elf

From Middle High German eilf, eilef, einlif, from Old High German einlif, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif, a compound of *ainaz and *-lif. Until the 19th century usually written eilf; the monophthongal form is of Central and Low German origin (Middle Low German elf). Compare Dutch elf, West Frisian alve, English eleven, Danish elleve.


elf

From Middle Low German elvene, from Old Saxon ellevan.


elf

head

elf m (masculine plural elf, feminine singular elfa, feminine plural elfe)

elf (masculine plural)
elfa (feminine singular)
elfe (feminine plural)


elf

mt-numeral

elf m or f (dual elfejn, plural eluf or elufijiet, paucal elef)

elfejn (dual)
eluf (plural)
elufijiet (plural)
elef (paucal)


elf

Scho was so faire & so fresche · as faucon hire semed, / An elfe out of an-othire erde · or ellis an Aungell

c. 1450, Wars of Alexander, Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, passus 24, line 5258:

She was so fair and beautiful; her elegance seemed like / An elf out of another world, or else an angel.

he was takyn with an elfe / I saw it myself / when the clok stroke twelf / was he forshapyn

c. 1450, “The Second Shepherds' Play”, in The Towneley Plays, Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, line 616:

He was taken by an elf; I saw it myself. / When the clock struck twelve, he was transfigured.

English: elf (see there for further descendants)

Scots: elf

Yola: elf

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


elf

From Rhine Franconian, from Old High German einlif. Compare German elf, Dutch elf, English eleven.


elf

elfik (diminutive)
elf (nominative singular)
elfy (nominative plural)
elfa (genitive singular)
elfów (genitive plural)
elfowi (dative singular)
elfom (dative plural)
elfa (accusative singular)
elfy (accusative plural)
elfem (instrumental singular)
elfami (instrumental plural)
elfie (locative singular)
elfach (locative plural)
elfie (singular vocative)
elfy (plural vocative)


elf

elfi (plural)
elf (accusative indefinite nominative singular)
elful (accusative definite nominative singular)
elfi (accusative indefinite nominative plural)
elfii (accusative definite nominative plural)
elf (indefinite singular)
elfului (definite singular)
elfi (indefinite plural)
elfilor (definite plural)
elfule (singular vocative)
elfilor (plural vocative)


elf

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi.