English
elver
Elver comes from Middle English *elfare.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*elfarereconstructed
- Englishearliest quotation 2012elver
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*elfarereconstructed
- Englishearliest quotation 2012elver
Earliest quotation: 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: “When these glass eels enter freshwater they transform again…”
A compound of el ‘eel’ + fare ‘group of journeyers’
Proto-Germanic *ēlaz ‘eel’
Proto-West Germanic *āl
Old English ǣl ‘eel’
Middle English el ‘eel’
Proto-Indo-European *per- ‘going, passage’
Proto-Germanic *faraną ‘to go, travel’
Proto-Germanic *farō ‘a going, journey, trip’
Proto-West Germanic *faru ‘journey’
Old English faru ‘a journey or going’
Middle English fare ‘group of journeyers’
The story
Liberman instead connects the second element of this word to a putative Old English suffix *-for(e), but there is no need to posit such a suffix when the traditional etymology suffices. Furthermore, such a suffix is not securely attested, and the spelling of the word's earliest attestation (as yele fare, ell vare) implies Middle English /aː/.
Every English word from Middle English *elfare
Today it means
noun A young eel.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English *elfare / elver