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Origin and history of rove

rove(v.)

"to wander with no fixed destination," 1530s (earliest sense was "to shoot arrows at a mark selected at pleasure or at random," late 15c.); possibly a Midlands dialectal variant of northern English and Scottish rave "to wander, stray," from Middle English raven "to wander, stray, rove" (late 14c.). This is probably from Old Norse rafa "to wander, rove." Or it might be from Old French raver, a late 15c. variant of resver "to stray" (see rave (v.)). Influenced by rover, if not in part a back-formation from it. Related: Roved; roving.

also from 1530s

Entries linking to rove

rave(v.)

early 14c., raven, "to show signs of madness or delirium, to rage in speech," from Old French raver, variant of resver "to dream; wander here and there, prowl; behave madly, be crazy," a word of unknown origin (compare reverie).

An identical (in form) verb meaning "to wander, stray, rove" dates from late 14c. in Scottish and northern dialect, and is probably from a Scandinavian word (such as Old Norse rafa). The sense of "talk about (something or someone) enthusiastically or immoderately" is recorded by 1704. Related: Raved; raving.

rover(n.1)

"sea-robber, pirate," late 14c. (c. 1300 as a surname), from Middle Dutch rover "robber, predator, plunderer," especially in zeerovere "pirate," literally "sea-robber," from roven "to rob," from Middle Dutch roof "spoil, plunder," related to Old English reaf "spoil, plunder," reafian "to reave" (see reave (v.), and compare reaver).

rover(n.2)

"one who wanders or rambles," especially to a great distance, 1610s, agent noun from rove (v.). Meaning "remote-controlled surface vehicle for extraterrestrial exploration" is from 1970.

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    Trends of rove

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    roll
    c. 1200, rolle, "rolled-up piece of parchment or paper, scroll" (especially one inscribed with an official record), from Old French rolle "document, parchment scroll, decree" (12c.), Medieval Latin rotulus "a roll of paper" (source also of Spanish rollo, Italian rullo), from Lati
    wander
    Middle English wandren, from Old English wandrian "move about aimlessly, wander," from West Germanic *wundrōjanan "roam about" (source also of Old Frisian wondria, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch wanderen, German wandern "to wander," a variant form of the verb represented in Old
    swan
    large, web-footed swimming bird, stately and graceful in the water, noted for its long neck and white down; Old English swan "swan," from Proto-Germanic *swanaz "singer" (source also of Old Saxon swan, Old Norse svanr, Danish svane, Swedish svan, Middle Dutch swane, Dutch zwaan,
    prowl
    late 14c., prollen, "rove or wander in a stealthy manner, move about in search of something," a word of unknown origin, with...
    maraud
    "to rove in quest of plunder, make an excursion for booty," especially of organized bands of soldiers, etc., 1711, from French...
    behoove
    Historically, it rimes with move, prove, but being now mainly a literary word, it is generally made to rime with rove, grove...
    straggle
    early 15c., stragelen, "wander from the proper path; rove from one's companions, become separated; move about without fixed...
    cast
    c. 1200, "throw, throw violently, fling, hurl," from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse kasta "to throw" (cognate with Swedish kasta, Danish kaste, North Frisian kastin), a word of uncertain origin. The meaning "to form in a mold" is late 15c. In the sense of "to throw" it r
    range
    c. 1200, renge, "row or line of persons" (especially hunters or soldiers), from Old French reng, renge "a row, line, rank," from Frankish *hring or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz "circle, ring, something curved" (from nasalized form of PIE root *sker- (2
    anger
    c. 1200, "to irritate, annoy, provoke," from Old Norse angra "to grieve, vex, distress; to be vexed at, take offense with," from Proto-Germanic *angaz (source also of Old English enge "narrow, painful," Middle Dutch enghe, Gothic aggwus "narrow"), from PIE *anghos, suffixed form

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    Dictionary entries near rove
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