elf

• elve (obsolete)

From Middle English elf, elfe, from Old English ælf (“incubus, elf”), from Proto-Germanic *albiz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”).

• 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.
   • Shakespeare

     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.
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.
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

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. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear

     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

• 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/

elf

1. eleven

elf m (plural elfs)

1. elf

elf m

1. elf

• IPA^(key): /ɛl(ə)f/

• audio

  (file)

• 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

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

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

1. elf (mythical creature)
2. brownie

• (mythical being): alf

• fel
• lef

Ultimately cognate to German elf.

elf

1. eleven (11)

• eilf, eilff, eylff (dated/obsolete)

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

• IPA^(key): /ʔɛlf/

• audio

  (file)

elf

1. eleven

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

• elf in Duden online

• eleve, ölve, ölven

From Middle Low German elvene, from Old Saxon ellevan.

elf

1. eleven

From Arabic أَلْف‎ (ʾalf).

elf m or f (pl elef)

1. thousand

• elfejn

• elfe, helfe

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

• IPA^(key): /ɛlf/

elf (plural elves)

1. elf, fairy
2. spirit, shade

• elven
• elvyssh

• English: elf
• Scots: elf

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

Compare German elf, Dutch elf, English eleven.

elf

1. eleven

• IPA^(key): /ɛlf/

• Audio

  (file)

elf m anim

1. elf, mythical or fantasy creature

The plural for the Tolkien creatures is usually elfowie.