Etymograph

English

cove

Cove comes from Old English cofa ‘chamber’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *kubô ‘shed, hut’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kubô‘shed, hut’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kobōreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150cofa‘chamber’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cove
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1659same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kubô‘shed, hut’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kobōreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150cofa‘chamber’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cove
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1659same form

Earliest quotation: 1659, Titus Livius [i.e., (please specify the book number): “secret coves and noukes”.

The story

This word has probably survived as long as it has due to its coincidental phonetic resemblance to the unrelated word English cave. Also unrelated to Spanish cueva, which itself is a cognate of cave.

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *kubô

Another origin of cove

  1. Romanimodernkova‘that person’uncertain
  2. Romani, derivedmodernkodo‘this one, him’uncertain
  3. Englishtodaycove

Attested in Britain a. 1570, from Romani kodo (“this one, him”, pronounced /koðo/, ultimately undergoing th-fronting to /kov/ in English), or perhaps directly from Romani kova (‘that person’).

Today it means

noun A hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *kubô / cove

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