different between ouphe vs auf

English

Alternative forms

• aulf

Etymology

From the same origin as oaf (“elf child”).

Noun

ouphe (plural ouphes)

1. (obsolete) A small, often mischievous sprite; a fairy; a goblin; an elf.
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 4, 1768, John Baskerville, Alexander Pope (editors), The Works of Shakespear, Volume 1, page 301,

     Strew good luck, ouphes, on every ?acred room, / That it may ?tand 'till the perpetual Doom, / In ?tate as whol?om, as in ?tate 'tis fit; / Worthy the owner, as the owner it.

   • 1835, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay, 1899, The Culprit Fa[y], page 4,

     For an Ouphe has broken his vestal vow; / He has loved an earthly maid, / And left for her his woodly shade;

   • 1835, Review of The Culprit Fay and Other Poems by Joseph Rodman Drake and Alnwick Castle by Fitz-Greene Halleck, Southern Literary Messenger, Volume 2, page 329,

     The plot is as follows. An Ouphe, one of the race of Fairies, has "broken his vestal vow," […] in short, he has broken Fairy-law in becoming enamored of a mortal.

English

Alternative forms

• oaf, ouph, ouphe, oph

Etymology

Apparently of North Germanic origin, compare Danish alf, Swedish alf, alv, Old Norse alfr (“elf”). Doublet of elf and oaf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f/

Noun

auf (plural aufs)

1. (obsolete) A changeling or elf child; a child left by fairies.
2. (obsolete) A deformed or foolish child; a simpleton; an oaf.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Drayton to this entry?)

Anagrams

• AFU, UAF, Ufa

German

Alternative forms

• auff (obsolete)
• uf, uff (obsolete or dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle High German ?f, from Old High German ?f, from Proto-Germanic *upp. This form with a lengthened vowel is originally Upper German. Central German forms were Middle High German uf and (western) up. Compare Luxembourgish op, Dutch op, English up.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a??f/
• Rhymes: -a??f

Preposition

auf

1. (with dative) on, upon (positioned at the top of)

2. (with accusative) on, onto, up (moving to the top of)

3. (with accusative) on (indicating responsibility)

4. (with dative) in, at; used with certain nouns intead of bei or in

5. (with accusative) to; used with certain nouns instead of zu or in

6. (with a language name) in (see usage note below)

7. (linguistics) in (of a word: ending with some sound or syllable)

8. (archaic or colloquial, regional, northern and western Germany) on (a day; usually of the week)

9. (with accusative) for (during the continuance of)

Usage notes

• Auf is a Wechselpräposition, meaning that it is used with accusative case when the verb shows movement from one place to another, whereas it is used with dative case when the verb shows location. In idiomatic combinations with verbs the correct case is not always predictable and must be memorised.
• Generally speaking, auf is used when referring to something being on a horizontal surface, as opposed to an, which usually points to a vertical surface.
• Auf is used with language names not preceded by any determiners or adjectives; otherwise in is used. Thus you say something auf Englisch (“in English”), but in gutem Englisch (“in good English”). The phrase auf gutem Englisch may not be entirely ungrammatical, but it is doubtful and at most informally acceptable.

Synonyms

• (on a day): an

Derived terms

• (auf + das) aufs (standard)
• (auf + dem) aufm (colloquial only)

Adverb

auf

1. (somewhat informal) open

   Synonym: offen

2. (colloquial) finished; gone (food)

   Synonym: alle

Synonyms

• (open): offen, geöffnet

Antonyms

• (open): zu, geschlossen

Usage notes

• Compare to the latter example the phrase: Die Milch ist aus, which would mean that all the milk has been sold out, e.g. from a supermarket.

Interjection

auf

1. carry on (continue or proceed as before)
2. have a go

Further reading

• “auf” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) , “auf”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891