# clove
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /kləʊv/
* (General American) IPA: /kloʊv/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -əʊv

### Etymology 1

From Middle English clove, an alteration of earlier clowe, borrowed from the first component of Old French clou (de girofle) (modern French clou de girofle), from Latin clāvus (“nail”) for its shape. Also see clāva (“knotty branch, club”). Doublet of clou and clavus.

#### Noun

clove (countable and uncountable, plural cloves)
* (uncountable, countable) A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree.
* (countable) A clove tree, of the species Syzygium aromaticum (syn. Caryophyllus aromaticus), native to the Moluccas (Indonesian islands), which produces the spice.
* (countable) An old English measure of weight, containing 7 pounds (3.2 kg), i.e. half a stone.
** 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, page 202:Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod 6+$^1$⁄$_2$ tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. The 'Pathway' points out the etymology of the word cloves; it calls them ' claves or nails.' It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.
** 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 169:By a statute of 9 Hen. VI. it was ordained that the wey of cheese should contain 32 cloves of 7 lbs. each, i.e. 224 lbs., or 2 cwts.

##### Derived terms

* clove camphor
* cloved
* clove gilliflower, clove gillyflower (Dianthus caryophyllus)
* cloveless
* clove lilli pilli
* clove pink (Dianthus caryophyllus)
* cloveroot
* clovetree
* clovewort

##### Related terms

* cloy
* cloying

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From Middle English clove, from Old English clufu, from Proto-West Germanic *klubu, from Proto-Germanic *klubō, related to clēofan (“to cleave, split”), hence with the verbal etymology hereafter.

#### Noun

clove (plural cloves)
* (horticulture, cooking) One of the small bulbs formed in the axils of the scales of a large bulb.
    clove of garlic, garlic clove, clove of a sea-onion, clove of shallot, cloves of bulbs

##### Translations
### Etymology 3
#### Verb

clove
* simple past of cleave

##### Related terms

* clove hitch
* clove hook
* cloven

### Etymology 4

Borrowed from Dutch klove (now kloof). Doublet of kloof.

#### Noun

clove (plural cloves)
* (geography) A narrow valley with steep sides, used in areas of North America first settled by the Dutch

##### Usage notes

* Mainly used in proper names, such as Kaaterskill Clove.

### References

* ↑ “clove, n.$^5$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

### Further reading

* “clove”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “clove”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* clove on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* Covel

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

Inherited from Old English clufu, from Proto-West Germanic *klubu, from Proto-Germanic *klubō, related to cleven.

#### Alternative forms

* clof, clowe

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈklɔːv(ə)/

#### Noun

clove (plural cloves)
* clove (bulb of garlic)

##### Descendants

* English: clove
* Scots: clow

##### References

* “clōve, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-29.

### Etymology 2

From Old French clou de girofle.

#### Noun

clove
* Alternative form of clowe

### Etymology 3

From Old English clofen, past participle of clēofan.

#### Noun

clove
* Alternative form of cloven

### Etymology 4

From Old English clēaf, 1st- and 3rd- person simple past singular of clēofan, with the vowel from the past participle.

#### Verb

clove
* simple past singular of cleven (“to split”)