cleave: [OE] There are two distinct verbs cleave in English, both of Germanic origin. Cleave ‘cut’ comes from Germanic *kleuban, which goes back to an Indo-European base *gleubh- (this also produced Greek glúphein ‘carve’, source of English hieroglyphics). Cleave ‘adhere’ can be traced back ultimately to an Indo-European base *gloi-, *glei-, *gli- ‘stick’, from which English also gets glue and gluten. Its Germanic descendant *klai- produced English clay and clammy, and *kli- developed into cleave. => clammy, clay, climb, glue, hieroglyphics
cleave (v.1)
"to split," Old English cleofan, cleven, cliven "to split, separate" (class II strong verb, past tense cleaf, past participle clofen), from Proto-Germanic *kleuban (cognates: Old Saxon klioban, Old Norse kljufa, Danish klöve, Dutch kloven, Old High German klioban, German klieben "to cleave, split"), from PIE root *gleubh- "to cut, slice" (see glyph).
Past tense form clave is recorded in Northern writers from 14c. and was used with both verbs (see cleave (v.2)), apparently by analogy with other Middle English strong verbs. Clave was common to c. 1600 and still alive at the time of the KJV; weak past tense cleaved for this verb also emerged in 14c.; cleft is still later. The past participle cloven survives, though mostly in compounds.
cleave (v.2)
"to adhere," Middle English cleven, clevien, cliven, from Old English clifian, cleofian, from West Germanic *klibajan (cognates: Old Saxon klibon, Old High German kliban, Dutch kleven, Old High German kleben, German kleben "to stick, cling, adhere"), from PIE *gloi- "to stick" (see clay). The confusion was less in Old English when cleave (v.1) was a class 2 strong verb; but it has grown since cleave (v.1) weakened, which may be why both are largely superseded by stick (v.) and split (v.).
雙語例句
1. They just cleave the stone along the cracks.
他們就是順著裂縫把石頭劈開。
來自辭典例句
2. The water is going to cleave a channel into the rock.
水流將在大山中衝出一條峽穀來.
來自互聯網
3. The tribe cleave to their old belief even after the european arrive.
即使在歐洲人到來之後,這些部落仍固守著它們古老的信仰.
來自互聯網
4. Which may be why we still cleave to his great poem.
這或許就是我們依然堅守著他偉大詩篇的原因.
來自互聯網
5. Those who cleave to the latter view include many conservative American politicians.