cave

英文词源

cave

cave: There are two English words cave which, despite their apparent similarity, are probably unrelated. The earlier, ‘underground chamber’ [13], comes via Old French cave from Latin cavea, a nominal use of the adjective cavus ‘hollow’ (source also of cavern [14], via Old French caverne or Latin caverna, and of cavity [16], from the late Latin derivative cavitās).

The verb cave [18], however, as in ‘cave in’, seems to come from an earlier dialectal calve ‘collapse, fall in’, once widespread in the eastern counties of England; it has been speculated that this was borrowed from a Low German source, such as Flemish inkalven. It has subsequently, of course, been much influenced by the noun cave.
=> cavern, cavity, decoy

cave (n.)

early 13c., from Old French cave "a cave, vault, cellar" (12c.), from Latin cavea "hollow" (place), noun use of neuter plural of adjective cavus "hollow," from PIE root *keue- "a swelling, arch, cavity" (see cumulus). Replaced Old English eorðscrafu. First record of cave man is 1865.

cave (v.)

early 15c., caven, "to hollow something out," from cave (n.). Modern sense "to collapse in or down" is 1707, American English, presumably from East Anglian dialectal calve "collapse, fall in," perhaps from Flemish; subsequently influenced by cave (n.). Transitive sense by 1762. Related: Caved; caving. Figurative sense of "yield to pressure" is from 1837.