different between reave vs raven

English

Alternative forms

• reive, rieve (archaic)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i?v/

• Rhymes: -i?v

• Homophone: reeve

Etymology 1

From Middle English reven, from Old English r?afian, from Proto-West Germanic *raub?n.

Germanic cognates include West Frisian rave, Old English r?af (“spoils, booty”)), and Old English past participle rofen (“torn, broken”), Norwegian rjuva, German rauben, Danish røve, and Swedish röva. Outside of Germanic, related to Latin rumpere (“to break”), Lithuanian rùpti (“to roughen”), Sanskrit ?????? (ropayati, “to make suffer”)). See rob and reif.

Verb

reave (third-person singular simple present reaves, present participle reaving, simple past and past participle reaved or reft)

1. (archaic) To plunder, pillage, rob, pirate, or remove.
2. (archaic) To deprive (a person) of something through theft or violence.

Derived terms

• border reiver

Related terms

• bereave
• reaver
• rip
• rob

Translations

Etymology 2

Alteration of rive by confusion with the above.

Verb

reave (third-person singular simple present reaves, present participle reaving, simple past and past participle reft)

1. (archaic) To split, tear, break apart.

Related terms

• rive
• unreaved

Middle English

Verb

reave

1. Alternative form of reven

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English raven, reven, from Old English hræfn, from Proto-West Germanic *hrabn, from Proto-Germanic *hrabnaz.

Pronunciation

• enPR: r??v?n, IPA^(key): /??e?v?n/
• Rhymes: -e?v?n

Noun

raven (countable and uncountable, plural ravens)

1. (countable) Any of several, generally large and lustrous black species of birds in the genus Corvus, especially the common raven, Corvus corax.
2. A jet-black colour.

Derived terms

• Australian raven (Corvus coronoides)
• brown-necked raven (Corvus ruficollis)
• Chatham raven (Corvus moriorum)
• Chihuahuan raven (Corvus cryptoleucus)
• common raven (Corvus corax)
• dwarf raven (Corvus edithae)
• fan-tailed raven (Corvus rhipidurus)
• forest raven (Corvus tasmanicus)
• little raven (Corvus mellori)
• New Zealand raven (Corvus antipodum)
• northern raven (Corvus corax)
• pied raven
• raven-messenger
• relict raven (Corvus tasmanicus boreus)
• Somali raven (Corvus edithae)
• Tasmanian raven (Corvus tasmanicus)
• thick-billed raven (Corvus crassirostris)
• western raven (Corvus corax sinuatus)
• white-necked raven (Corvus albicollis)

Translations

Adjective

raven (not comparable)

1. Of the color of the raven; jet-black

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English ravene, ravine, from Old French raviner (“rush, seize by force”), itself from ravine (“rapine”), from Latin rap?na (“plundering, loot”), itself from rapere (“seize, plunder, abduct”).

Alternative forms

• ravin, ravine

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?v??n, IPA^(key): /??æv?n/
• Rhymes: -æv?n

Noun

raven (plural ravens)

1. Rapine; rapacity.
2. Prey; plunder; food obtained by violence.

Translations

Verb

raven (third-person singular simple present ravens, present participle ravening, simple past and past participle ravened)

1. (transitive, archaic) To obtain or seize by violence.
2. (transitive) To devour with great eagerness.
3. (transitive) To prey on with rapacity.

   The raven is both a scavenger, who ravens a dead animal almost like a vulture, and a bird of prey, who commonly ravens to catch a rodent.

4. (intransitive) To show rapacity; to be greedy (for something).
   • 1587, Leonard Mascall, The First Booke of Cattell, London, “The nature and qualities of hogges, and also the gouernement thereof,”^[1]

     […] because hogs are commonly rauening for their meat, more then other cattel, it is meet therefore to haue them ringed, or else they wil doe much hurt in digging and turning vp corne fieldes […]

   • 1852, Elizabeth Gaskell, “The Old Nurse’s Story” in The Old Nurse’s Story and Other Tales,^[2]

     They passed along towards the great hall-door, where the winds howled and ravened for their prey […]

   • 1865, Sabine Baring-Gould, The Book of Were-Wolves, London: Smith, Elder & Co., Chapter 8, p. 114,^[3]

     The Greek were-wolf is closely related to the vampire. The lycanthropist falls into a cataleptic trance, during which his soul leaves his body, enters that of a wolf and ravens for blood.

   • 1931, James B. Fagan, The Improper Duchess, London: Victor Gollancz, 1932, Act 3, p. 237,^[4]

     On one side the great temple where you can gather the good harvest—on the other a dirty little scandal that you’ve nosed out to fling to paper scavengers who feed it to their readin’ millions ravening for pornographic dirt.

Related terms

• ravener
• ravening
• ravenous, ravenously, ravenousness

Further reading

• Corvus corax on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Verna

Dutch

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English rave.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?re?v?(n)/

Verb

raven

1. to (hold a) rave, to party wildly

Inflection

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ra?v?(n)/
• Rhymes: -a?v?n

Noun

raven

1. Plural form of raaf

Anagrams

• ervan, varen

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch ravan, from Proto-West Germanic *hrabn.

Noun

r?ven m

1. raven

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative forms

• r?vene
• r?ve

Descendants

• Dutch: raaf
  • Afrikaans: raaf
  • ? Sranan Tongo: rafru
• Limburgish: raof

Further reading

• “raven”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “raven”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *orv?n?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rà???n/

Adjective

ráv?n (comparative rávnejši, superlative n?jrávnejši)

1. even, level

Inflection

Alternative forms

• rav?n (archaic)

Derived terms

• rávnost

Further reading

• “raven”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran