different between delve vs yelve

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?lv/
• Rhymes: -?lv

Etymology 1

From Middle English delven, from Old English delfan (“to dig, dig out, burrow, bury”), from Proto-Germanic *delban? (“to dig”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?elb?- (“to dig”). Cognate with West Frisian dolle (“to dig, delve”), Dutch delven (“to dig, delve”), Low German dölven (“to dig, delve”), dialectal German delben, telben (“to dig, delve”).

Verb

delve (third-person singular simple present delves, present participle delving, simple past delved or (obsolete) dolve, past participle delved or (archaic) dolven)

1. (intransitive) To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.

   • Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.

   • I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
   • 1609-11, Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain

     I cannot delve him to the root.

   • 1943, Emile C. Tepperman, Calling Justice, Inc.!

     She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To dig, to excavate.
   • ca. 1260, Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend

     And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory ...

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, chapter IV

     Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.

Synonyms

• (to dig the ground): dig
• (to search thoroughly): investigate, research

Derived terms

• delver
• indelve
• undelve

Related terms

• dolven

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English delve, delf, dælf, from Old English delf, ?edelf (“digging”) and dælf (“that which is dug out, delf, ditch”). More at delf.

Noun

delve (plural delves)

1. (now rare) A pit or den.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.iii:

     the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say) / To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, / In a deepe delue, farre from the vew of day [...].

   • 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage 2015, p. 75:

     I put the clods on top the delve and gave it all a good thumping down with my feet.

Related terms

• stonedelf

Anagrams

• devel

Dutch

Verb

delve

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of delven

Anagrams

• velde

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English delfan.

Verb

delve

1. Alternative form of delven

Etymology 2

From Old English delf.

Noun

delve

1. Alternative form of delf

English

Noun

yelve (plural yelves)

1. (obsolete) A fork used to carry dung; such a fork used as a garden tool.

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989

Anagrams

• Levey, Vélye

Turkish

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic *jelbe.

Noun

yelve (definite accusative {{{1}}}, plural {{{2}}})

1. European greenfinch