English
hover
Hover comes from Middle English hoveren ‘to float in the air, hover’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hoveren‘to float in the air, hover’
- Englishearliest quotation 1579hover
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hoveren‘to float in the air, hover’
- Englishearliest quotation 1579hover
Earliest quotation: 1579, Stephen Gosson, The Schoole of Abuse, […]: “[T]hough you go to Theaters to see sport, Cupid…”
Formed from hove ‘(obsolete) to remain suspended, float, hover’ + -er
Proto-Indo-European *keup- ‘to arch, bend, buckle’
Proto-Germanic *hufą ‘hill, height, farm, dwelling’
Proto-Germanic *hufōną ‘to house, lodge’
Old English *hofian ‘to receive into one's house’
Middle English hoven ‘to linger, wait, hover, move aside,…’
English hove
The story
The verb is derived from Middle English hoveren (‘to float in the air, hover; to stay’), probably from hoven (‘hover; of a bird: to fly high in the air, soar’) (which it displaced) + -er- (frequentative suffix). Hoven is probably derived from Old English *hōfian, from hōfon, the plural past indicative form of hebban (‘to lift, raise’), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (‘to lift; to heave’), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (‘to hold, seize’). The English word is analysable as hove (‘(obsolete) to remain suspended, float, hover; to linger, wait’) + -er (frequentative suffix).
Every English word from Middle English hoveren
Today it means
verb To keep (something, such as an aircraft) in a stationary state in the air.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English hoveren / hover