eve

See also: Eve, EVE, éve, evé, Ève, Êve, and Eʋe

English

Etymology

From a variant of the Middle English noun even (itself from Old English ǣfen), with a pre-1200 loss of the terminal '-n', which was mistaken for an inflection. See also the now archaic or poetic even (“evening”), from the same source.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iːv/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv
• Homophones: eave, Eve

Noun

eve (plural eves)

1. The day or night before, usually used for holidays, such as Christmas Eve.
2. (archaic, poetic) Evening, night.
   • Mid-19th century, Clare, John, Autumn:

     I love to see the shaking twig / Dance till the shut of eve

   • 1896, Housman, A[lfred] E[dward], chapter XXVII, in A Shropshire Lad, lines 42-43:

     And has she tired of weeping / As she lies down at eve.

   • 2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 79:

     Sitting on the dockside at Oban, watching the to-ing and fro-ing in the harbour on a perfect summer's eve, I reflect on a trip which has taken me through our busiest cities to traverse the country's main lines, as well as explore some of the furthest extremities that were literally out on a limb.

4. (figuratively) The period of time when something is just about to happen or to be introduced

   Antonyms: evening, winter

   the eve of a scientific discovery

Synonyms

• (evening): een, eventide, forenight; see also Thesaurus:evening

Derived terms

• yestereve

Related terms

• evening
• even

Translations

day or night before

• Armenian: նախօրյակ (hy) (naxōryak), նախօրե (hy) (naxōre), ճրագալույց (hy) (čragaluycʿ) (of Christmas, Epiphany and Easter)
• Azerbaijani: qabaq (az), ərəfə
• Bulgarian: навечерие n (navečerie)
• Catalan: vigília (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 前夕 (zh) (qiánxī), 前夜 (zh) (qiányè)

• Czech: předvečer (cs) m
• Dutch: vooravond (nl) m, vigilie (nl) f
• Esperanto: antaŭvespero
• Finnish: aatto (fi)
• French: veille (fr) f
• Friulian: vilie f
• Galician: véspera f
• German: Vorabend (de) m
• Hungarian: előeste (hu)
• Italian: vigilia (it) f
• Japanese: 前夜 (ja) (ぜんや, zen'ya)

• Ladin: ueia f, vea f, vëia f
• Ladino: arba
• Latin: vesper m
• Latvian: priekšvakars m
• Ligurian: vigília f
• Lithuanian: ìšvakarės (lt) f pl
• Lombard: vigília f
• Maltese: lejliet
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: aften (no) m

• Old English: ǣfen m
• Piedmontese: vigilia f
• Polish: wigilia (pl) f, przeddzień (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: véspera (pt) f
• Romanian: ajun (ro) n, preziuă (ro) f
• Russian: кану́н (ru) m (kanún)
• Serbo-Croatian: predvečerje (sh), predveče (sh)
• Spanish: víspera (es) f, vigilia (es) f
• Swedish: afton (sv) c
• Tagalog: bisperas
• Turkish: arefe (tr), akşam (tr)
• Urdu: رات‎ (ur) f
• Volapük: büsoar (vo)

period of time when something is about to happen

• Azerbaijani: qabaq (az), ərəfə

• Russian: кану́н (ru) m (kanún), преддве́рие (ru) m (preddvérije)

Further reading

• eve at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• EeV, Vee, vee

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Aiwoo

Numeral

eve

1. three

References

• Ross, M. & Næss, Å. (2007), “An Oceanic origin for Äiwoo, the language of the Reef Islands?”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 46, issue 2. Cited in: "Äiwoo" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271-283.

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Ewe

Ewe cardinal numbers

<  1	2	3  >
Cardinal : eve     Ordinal : evelia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeve/

Numeral

eve

1. two

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Finnish

Etymology

Slang, from ekstaasi (folk-etymologically connected with the nickname Eve, with which it is unrelated)

Noun

eve

1. (slang) ecstasy (drug)

Declension

Inflection of eve (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)
nominative		eve	evet
genitive		even	evejen
partitive		eveä	evejä
illative		eveen	eveihin
		singular	plural
nominative		eve	evet
accusative	nom.	eve	evet
	gen.	even
genitive		even	evejen eveinrare
partitive		eveä	evejä
inessive		evessä	eveissä
elative		evestä	eveistä
illative		eveen	eveihin
adessive		evellä	eveillä
ablative		eveltä	eveiltä
allative		evelle	eveille
essive		evenä	eveinä
translative		eveksi	eveiksi
instructive		—	evein
abessive		evettä	eveittä
comitative		—	eveineen

Possessive forms of eve (type nalle)
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	eveni	evemme
2nd person	evesi	evenne
3rd person	evensä

Synonyms

• ekstaasi

Anagrams

• vee

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Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

eve (present tense ever, past tense eva or evet, past participle eva or evet)

1. (reflexive) to wait, doubt, drag one's feet

References

• “eve” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• Homophone: æve (example of pronunciation)

Etymology 1

From Old Norse efa, ifa. Confer also with earlier ivast.

Alternative forms

• (verb): eva (a- and split infinitives)
  • (Aasen) æva, ivast
• (noun): (Aasen) Æve

Verb

eve (present tense evar, past tense eva, past participle eva, passive infinitive evast, present participle evande, imperative eve/ev)

1. (reflexive) to wait, doubt, drag one's feet

Noun

eve m (definite singular even, indefinite plural evar, definite plural evane)

1. doubt, uncertainty

Etymology 2

Related to eva (Etymology 2) and ev.

Alternative forms

• eva (non-standard since 2012)

Noun

eve f (definite singular eva, indefinite plural ever, definite plural evene)

1. trace, rest

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Old French

Etymology

Latin aqua.

Noun

eve f (oblique plural eves, nominative singular eve, nominative plural eves)

1. Alternative form of iaue; water

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Rapa Nui

Noun

eve

1. buttocks

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Turkish

Noun

eve

1. singular dative of ev

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Zazaki

Alternative forms

• ev (southern zazaki)

Article

eve (n)

1. the