eft

See also: EFT and eft-

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛft/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛft

Etymology 1

From Middle English evete, from Old English efeta, of unknown origin.

Noun

eft (plural efts)

1. A newt, especially the European smooth newt (, syn. ).
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     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?

Usage notes

The term red eft is used for the land-dwelling juvenile stage of the Eastern newt ().

Derived terms

• red eft

Translations

newt

• Bulgarian: тритон m (triton)
• Czech: čolek (cs) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Plautdietsch: Äajdakjsel m
• Russian: трито́н (ru) m (tritón)

Etymology 2

From Middle English eft, from Old English eft, æft, from Proto-West Germanic *afti, from Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Compare after, aft.

Adverb

eft (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Again; afterwards
   • 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, […]

Derived terms

• eftsoons

Translations

again; afterwards

• Russian: по́сле (ru) (pósle), за́ново (ru) (zánovo)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagrams

• ETF, FET, FTE, TFE, fet, tef

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Middle English

Etymology

From Old English eft, æft. Compare after.

Adverb

eft

1. again
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Marchauntes Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio xxx, recto, column 2:

     Were I vnbounde, also mote I the
     I wolde neuer efte come in the ſnare

     If I were released,—so may I prosper,—
     I would never again fall into the snare.

2. back (to a previous place or state)
   • 1384, John Wycliffe, Bible (Wycliffe): Mark, ii, 1,

     And eft he entride in to Cafarnaum, aftir eiyte daies.

     And he came back into Capernaum after eight days.

   • 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

     Then Sir Bedivere returned again and took the sword in his hand, and then it seemed a sin and a shame to him to throw away that noble sword, and so he hid the sword back again and returned again and told the king that he had been at the water and done what he commanded.

3. afterwards, hereafter
4. likewise, in addition, moreover

Alternative forms

• ef
• æft

Descendants

• English: eft

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Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Cognate with Old Frisian eft, Old Saxon eft, Old Norse ept.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eft/

Adverb

eft

1. again

   Hē ātēah eft his sweord, and eft hit līehte on þīestrum þurh hit self.

   He took out his sword again, and again it flashed in the dark by itself.

   • c. 992, Ælfric, "Sermon on the Beginning of Creation"

     Þā behēt God þæt hē nolde nǣfre eft eall mancynn mid wætre ācwellan.

     Then God promised that he would never again destroy all of humanity with water.

2. back (of return or reversal)

   Ġif man lange staraþ on þā neowolnesse, staraþ sēo neowolnes eft on hine.

   If you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss stares back into you.

   • c. 992, Ælfric, "Saint Maur, Abbot"

     Þā ēode sē prēost eft tō his weorce.

     Then the priest went back to his work.

   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, Matthew 26:52

     Þā cwæþ sē Hǣlend tō him, "Dō þīn sweord eft on his sċēaðe."

     Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back in its sheath."

3. afterwards

Descendants

• Middle English: eft
  • English: eft

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Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Cognate with Old Frisian eft, Old English eft, Old Norse ept.

Adverb

eft

1. afterwards, again

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Yola

Etymology

From Middle English efte, from Old English efete.

Noun

eft

1. newt

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 38