delve

English

WOTD – 17 May 2007

Etymology

From Middle English delven, delfan (“to dig, examine, bury, imbed, implant”), from Old English delfan (“to dig, dig out, burrow, bury”), from Proto-Germanic *delbaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰelbʰ- (“to dig”). Compare Dutch delven.

Pronunciation

Verb

delve (third-person singular simple present delves, present participle delving, simple past delved or obsolete dalf, past participle delved or obsolete dolven)

(intransitive) To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.
- 1381, John Ball
  When Adam dalf and Eve span, / Who was then a gentleman?
- 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter XXIX
  I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.
(transitive, intransitive) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
- 1609-11, Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain
  I cannot delve him to the root.
- 1943, Emile C. Tepperman, Calling Justice, Inc.!
  She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.
(transitive, intransitive) To dig, to excavate.
- ca. 1260, Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend
  And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory ...
- 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, chapter IV
  Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.

Synonyms

(to dig the ground): dig
(to search thoroughly): investigate, research

Derived terms

Related terms

dolven

Translations

to dig in the ground

Bulgarian: копая (bg) (kopaja)
Danish: grave (da)
Dutch: delven (nl)
Finnish: kaivaa (fi)
Greek: σκαλίζω (el) (skalízo), σκάβω (el) (skávo)
Hungarian: ás (hu)

Icelandic: grafa (með skóflu, with a shovel), moka
Portuguese: cavar (pt)
Russian: рыть (ru) (rytʹ), копать (ru) (kopátʹ)
Swedish: gräva (sv)

to search carefully for information

Bulgarian: ровя се (bg) (rovja se)
Danish: dykke ned i (da)
Finnish: penkoa (fi), tutkia (fi), paneutua (fi)

Greek: ερευνώ (el) (erevnó)
Icelandic: rannsaka, kanna
Russian: рыться (ru) (rýtʹsja), копаться (ru) (kopátʹsja)

Noun

delve (plural delves)

(now rare) A pit or den.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.iii:
  the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say) / To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, / In a deepe delue, farre from the vew of day [...].