elves

Noun

elf (plural elves or (now nonstandard) elfs)

1. (Germanic) A supernatural being or spirit associated with illness, mischief, and harmful or dangerous magical influence; in later Norse sources, sometimes divided into benevolent light elves (inhabiting Álfheimr) and malevolent dark elves.
   • […] if theyr children at any time vvere frowarde and vvanton, they would ſay to them that the Guelfe or the Gibeline came. VVhich vvords novve from them (as many thinge els) be come into our vſage, and for Guelfes and Gibelines, we ſay Elfes & Goblins.1579, E. K., “[Iune. Ægloga Sexta.] Glosse.”, in Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 25, recto

   Synonyms:

   goblin, fairy

2. A small, magical creature similar to a fairy, often mischievous, playful, or occasionally helpful.
   • For there and ſeveral other places
     About mill dams and green brae faces,
     Both Elrich, Elfs and Brownies ſtayed,
     And Green gown’d Farries daunc’d and played; […]a. 1690, William Cleland, A Collection of Several Poems and Verses, Composed upon Various Occasions, published 1697, page 59
3. A member of a race of tall, slender, graceful beings with pointed ears, typically immortal or very long-lived and possessing wisdom and magical abilities.
   • Much of fairy lore clusters around the so-called fairy rings, that is, the green circles in old pastures within which the elfs were supposed to dance at night by the light of the moon.1889 May, “[Literary Notices.] The Folk-Lore of Plants. By T. F. Thiselton Dyer. […]”, in Popular Science, page 128, column 1
4. (obsolete) A very diminutive person; a dwarf.
5. (South Africa) Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).

See all 6 meanings of elf

Noun

elve (plural elves)

1. A rapidly expanding disk-shaped region of red luminosity in the ionosphere, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, which occurs high above energetic cloud-to-ground lightning of positive or negative polarity.
   • It is likely that the first elve was recorded with the Space Shuttle low-light camera.2006, Martin Füllekrug, Eugene A. Mareev, Michael J. Rycroft, Sprites, elves and intense lightning discharges, page 37