eft
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɛft/
- Rhymes: -ɛft
Etymology 1
From Middle English evete, from Old English efeta, of unknown origin.
Noun
eft (plural efts)
- A newt, especially the European smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris, syn. Triturus punctatus).
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.10:
- Only these marishes and myrie bogs, / In which the fearefull ewftes do build their bowres, / Yeeld me an hostry mongst the croking frogs […].
- 1844, Robert Browning, "Garden Fancies," II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgennis:
- How did he like it when the live creatures
- Tickled and toused and browsed him all over,
- And worm, slug, eft, with serious features
- Came in, each one, for his right of trover?
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.10:
Usage notes
The term red eft is used for the land-dwelling juvenile stage of the Eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens).
Derived terms
- red eft
Translations
Etymology 2
From Old English eft, from Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Compare after, aft.
Adverb
eft (not comparable)
- (obsolete) Again; afterwards
- 14thC, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale in The Canterbury Tales,
- Were I unbounden, all so may I the, / I woulde never eft come in the snare.
- 1384, John Wycliffe, Bible (Wycliffe): Mark, ii, 1,
- And eft he entride in to Cafarnaum, aftir eiyte daies.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter v, in Le Morte Darthur, book XXI:
- Than syr bedwere retorned ageyn & took the swerde in hys hande / and than hym thought synne and shame to throwe awaye that nobyl swerde / and so efte he hydde the swerde and retorned ageyn and tolde to the kyng that he had ben at the water and done his commaundemente
- 1557, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, The Fourth Book of Virgil,
- And when they were all gone, / And the dim moon doth eft withhold the light, […]
- 14thC, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale in The Canterbury Tales,
Derived terms
Translations
Anagrams
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Cognate with Old Frisian eft, Old Saxon eft, Old Norse ept.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /eft/
Adverb
eft
- a second time, again; afterwards
Old Saxon
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Cognate with Old Frisian eft, Old English eft, Old Norse ept.
Adverb
eft
Yola
Noun
eft
References
- J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)
This article is issued from
Wiktionary.
The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike.
Additional terms may apply for the media files.