elf

• elve (obsolete)

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Ultimately probably derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”). Doublet of oaf.

• enPR: ĕlf, IPA^(key): /ɛlf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlf

elf (plural elves)

1. (Norse mythology) A luminous spirit presiding over nature and fertility and dwelling in the world of Álfheim (Elfland). Compare angel, nymph, fairy.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Every elf, and fairy sprite, / Hop as light as bird from brier.

2. Any from a race of mythical, supernatural beings resembling but seen as distinct from human beings. They are usually delicate-featured and skilled in magic or spellcrafting; sometimes depicted as clashing with dwarves, especially in modern fantasy literature.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281:

     All the fairy tales of my childhood were conjured up before my startled imagination, and appeared to be realised in the forms which surrounded me; I saw the whole forest filled with trolls, elves, and sporting dwarfs.

3. (fantasy) Any of the magical, typically forest-guarding races bearing some similarities to the Norse álfar (through Tolkien's Eldar).
4. A very diminutive person; a dwarf[1].
5. (South Africa) The bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).

• (supernatural creature): See goblin (hostile); fairy (small, mischievous)

• elfe
• elven
• wood elf, wood-elf

• elfin, elven, elvan
• elvish

• → Arabic: إِلْف‎ (ʔilf)
• → Dutch: elf
• → French: elfe
• → German: Elf, Elfe
• → Japanese: エルフ (erufu)
• → Korean: 엘프 (elpeu)

elf (third-person singular simple present elfs, present participle elfing, simple past and past participle elfed)

1. (now rare) To twist into elflocks (of hair); to mat.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     My face I'll grime with filth, blanket my loins, elf all my hairs in knots, and with presented nakedness outface the winds and persecutions of the sky.

• dark elf & light elf
• fairy
• brownie
• dwarf
• hobbit
• Eldar

• Marshall Jones Company (1930). Mythology of All Races Series, Volume 2 Eddic, Great Britain: Marshall Jones Company, 1930, pp. 220-221.

• EFL

From Dutch elf, from Middle Dutch ellef, elf, from Old Dutch *ellef, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif.

• IPA^(key): /ɛlf/

• Audio (AF)

  (file)

elf

1. eleven

• ejf, ölf (spelling)

• IPA^(key): (Northern) /œlf/
• IPA^(key): (West-Central) /ei̯f/

  • Audio

    (file)

• IPA^(key): (East-Central) /œːf/

elf

1. eleven

elf m (plural elfs)

1. elf

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛlf]

elf m

1. elf

• elfí

• elf in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• elf in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

• IPA^(key): /ɛl(ə)f/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: elf
• Rhymes: -ɛlf

From Middle Dutch ellef, elf, from Old Dutch *ellef, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif, a compound of *ainaz and *-lif. Compare German elf, West Frisian alve, English eleven, Danish elleve.

elf

1. eleven

elf f (plural elven, diminutive elfje n)

1. The number eleven, or a representation thereof.

• Afrikaans: elf
• Berbice Creole Dutch: alfu, elfu
• Jersey Dutch: ālf
• Negerhollands: elf, elef
• Skepi Creole Dutch: elk
• → Sranan Tongo: erfu
  • → Aukan: elufu
  • → Saramaccan: elúfu

Borrowed from German Elf, itself borrowed from English elf, from Old English ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Displaced native alf, from the same Germanic source.

elf m (plural elfen or elven, diminutive elfje n, feminine elve or elfin)

1. elf, brownie (small folkloric creature)
2. (fantasy) elf (humanoid pointy-eared creature in fantasy)

• (mythical being): alf

• boself
• elfenbank
• elfin
• kerstelf
• woudelf

• → Papiamentu: èlfye (from the diminutive)

• fel
• lef

From Low German, from Middle Low German elvene, from Old Saxon ellevan. Related to German elf.

elf

1. eleven (11)

• eilf, eilff, eylf, eylff (all obsolete)

From Middle High German eilf, eilef, einlif, from Old High German einlif, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif, a compound of *ainaz and *-lif. Until the 19th century usually written eilf; the monophthongal form is of Central and Low German origin (Middle Low German elf). Compare Dutch elf, West Frisian alve, English eleven, Danish elleve.

• IPA^(key): /ɛlf/, [ʔɛlf]

• audio

  (file)

elf

1. (cardinal number) eleven

• Elf
• elffach
• Elfeck
• elfeckig
• elfstellig
• elfstündig

• “elf” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “elf” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “elf” in Duden online
• elf on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de

• eleve, ölve, ölven

From Middle Low German elvene, from Old Saxon ellevan.

elf

1. eleven

From English elf.

• IPA^(key): /ɛlf/
• Hyphenation: elf

elf m (masculine plural elf, feminine singular elfa, feminine plural elfe) (New Lombard Orthography)

1. (Norse mythology) elf
2. (fantasy) elf

• elfegh

From Arabic أَلْف‎ (ʔalf).

• IPA^(key): /ɛlf/

elf m or f (dual elfejn, plural eluf or elufijiet, paucal elef)

1. thousand

• elfe, helfe

From Old English elf, Anglian form of ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”).

• IPA^(key): /ɛlf/

elf (plural elves)

1. elf, fairy
   • c. 1450, Wars of Alexander‎, Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, passus 24, line 5258:

     Scho was so faire & so fresche · as faucon hire semed, / An elfe out of an-othire erde · or ellis an Aungell

     She was so fair and beautiful; her elegance seemed like / An elf out of another world, or else an angel.

   • c. 1450, “The Second Shepherds' Play”, in The Towneley Plays‎, Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, line 616:

     he was takyn with an elfe / I saw it myself / when the clok stroke twelf / was he forshapyn

     He was taken by an elf; I saw it myself. / When the clock struck twelve, he was transfigured.

2. spirit, shade

• elven
• elvyssh

• English: elf (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: elf
• Yola: elf

• “elf, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-12.

From Rhine Franconian, from Old High German einlif. Compare German elf, Dutch elf, English eleven.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛlf/

elf

1. eleven

Borrowed from German Elf.

• IPA^(key): /ɛlf/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlf
• Syllabification: elf

elf m anim (diminutive elfik)

1. elf (mythical or fantasy creature)

The plural for the Tolkien creatures is usually elfowie.

• elf in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• elf in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From French elfe.

elf m (plural elfi)

1. elf

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi.

elf (plural elvès)

1. fairy

• Jacob Poole (1867), 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, page 38