Etymograph

English

dove

Dove comes from Middle English douve ‘a dove, pigeon, or similar bird’, from Proto-Germanic *dūbaną ‘to dive, to sink’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰewbʰ-1‘to sink in’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dūbaną1‘to dive, to sink’uncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dūbǭ1‘dove, pigeon’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dūbā1‘dove, pigeon’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150*dūfe1‘dove, pigeon’reconstructed
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500douve1‘a dove, pigeon, or similar bird’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1611dove1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English dove
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “O my dove, […] let me hear thy voice.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰewbʰ-Wiktionary, English dove‘to sink in’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dūbanąWiktionary, English dove‘to dive, to sink’uncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dūbǭWiktionary, English dove‘dove, pigeon’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dūbāWiktionary, English dove‘dove, pigeon’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150*dūfeWiktionary, English dove‘dove, pigeon’reconstructed
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500douveWiktionary, English dove‘a dove, pigeon, or similar bird’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1611doveWiktionary, English dove. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “O my dove, […] let me hear thy voice.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- ‘to sink in’

deep, bottom, fund, foundation, depth, dumb, founder, dip, dave, deaf, fond, bot, dub, bourne, butte, typhus, doof, 23 more

Today it means

noun A pigeon, especially one smaller in size and white-colored; a bird (often arbitrarily called either a pigeon or a dove or both) of more than three hundred species of the family Columbidae.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “dove”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- / dove

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