Etymograph

English

haven

Haven comes from Middle English haven, and goes back to Old English hæfen.

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150hæfen1
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500haven1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1842haven1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English haven
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, "Break, break, break,": “And the stately ships go on / To their…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150hæfenWiktionary, English haven
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500havenWiktionary, English haven
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1842havenWiktionary, English haven. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, "Break, break, break,": “And the stately ships go on / To their…”

The story

From Middle English haven, havene, from Old English hæfen (‘haven; harbour; port’), either from Proto-West Germanic *habanu or Old Norse hǫfn, from Proto-Germanic *habnō, *habanō (compare Dutch haven, German Hafen, Norwegian/Danish havn, Swedish hamn, French havre), from Proto-Germanic *habą (‘sea’) (compare Old English hæf, Middle Low German haf, Old Norse haf (‘sea’), German Haff (‘bay or lagoon behind a spit’), perhaps, in the sense of "heaving sea", etymologically identical with Old Norse haf (‘heaving, lifting, uplift, elevation’), derived from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (‘to lift, heave’)), or from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂pnós (compare Old Irish cúan (‘harbor, recess, haven’)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kap- ‘to seize’

had, case, head, except, capital, cash, captain, catch, accept, capacity, heavy, escape, capable, receive, cable, capture, chapter, achieve, cape, heavily, behavior, chef, recipe, reception, occupation, perception, cattle, chase, cabin, capitol, capita, chapel, anticipation, recipient, anticipate, caption, capsule, susceptible, deception, precipitation, 176 more

through Old Norse hǫfn

abra

Today it means

noun A harbour or anchorage protected from the sea.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “haven”. 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 / Old English hæfen / haven

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