doven

English

Etymology 1

Verb

doven

1. (dialectal) past participle of dive
   • 1870 August, “Bobbit’s Hotel”, in J[ohn] T[ownsend] Trowbridge, Lucy Larcom, editors, Our Young Folks. An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls., volume IV, number VIII, Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co., […], page 484:

     “Now,” said Bobbit, with an amazing chuckle for a boy who was going to give to-morrow’s dinner to another boy, “you walk right along as ef you was going to walk a mile, and when you see I ’ve doven — dive!” The next they knew after that, Bobbit had “doven” into the old engine boiler, and they after him.

   • 1879, Josiah Allen’s Wife [pen name; Marietta Holley], “How Serepta Carried the Meetin’ House”, in Josiah Allen’s Wife as a P.A. and P.I. Samantha at the Centennial. […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, page 242:

     Knowin’ what I do know, divin’ deep into the heights and depths of men’s naters as I have doven, I knew that this would break Serepta’s chains.

   • 1879, Josiah Allen’s Wife [pen name; Marietta Holley], “Tirzah Ann’s Summer Strip”, in Peterson’s Magazine, volume seventy-sixth, […] Illman Brothers, pages 40 (part I) and 120 (part II), column 2:

     I didn’t go onto the heights and depths of filosofy, on which I so many times had flew and doven; […] But not studyin’ it out as I have, not divin’ into the subject so deep as I have doven, it galled Tirzah Ann to see Mrs. Skidmore put on such airs.

   • 1880, Josiah Allen’s Wife (Marietta Holley), My Wayward Pardner; or, My Trials with Josiah, America, The Widow Bump, and Etcetery, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1882, pages 146, 177, 294, 298, and 301:

     Says I, feelin’ more and more eloquent as I dove further and further into the depths of the subject than I had doven—and the more I went on about it the more carried away I wuz and lost, till before I had gone on 2 minutes I was entirely by the side of myself, and carried completely out of Kellup Cobb’s presence, out of Josiah Allen’s kitchen, out into the mighty waste of mystery that floats all round Jonesville and the world: […] I knew this, divin’ into the mysterious ingregiencies of men’s naters so deep as I had doven, I knew this great filisofical fact as well as I knew the dimensions of the nose on my pardner’s face. […] But not bein’ jealous dispositioned by nater, and and^[sic] havin’ so many other things to think of—soarin’ and divin’ so high and deep into curious and solemn subjects as I have soared and doven, I s’pose folks might feel milds and milds above me, and I not mistrust what they was a doin’; never find it out in the world unless I was told of it. […] Says I, “You’ll find, as a general thing, that they are the very ones who do it. They are the very ones who put on the most airs, and they do it because they have to. Why,” says I, “divin’ so deep into filosify as I have doven, it is jest as plain to me as anything can be, that if anybody has got uncommon goodness, or intellect, or beauty, or wealth, and an assured position, they don’t have to put on the haughtiness and airs that them do that hain’t got nothin’. […] I thought I wouldn’t go into the heights and depths of felosophy in which I had flew and doven—she had heard me time and agin, and eloquence is very tuckerin’ especially after you have been doin’ a hard day’s work—so I merely said: […]

   • 1911, Josiah Allen’s Wife (Marietta Holley), “In Which I Continue My Search for Josiah Through Dreamland, Huntin’ for Him in Vain, and Return to Bildad’s at Night, Weary and Despairin’”, in Samantha at Coney Island and a Thousand Other Islands, New York: The Christian Herald, […], page 283:

     But I sez, “Nobody can dive into deeper depths than I have doven to-day.” / “The ocean?” sez she. / “Oceans of anxiety,” sez I, “rivers of grief.”

   • 1914, Marietta Holley, “In Which I Resolve to Write a Book”, in Josiah Allen on the Woman Question, Fleming H. Revell Company, pages 16 and 20:

     And in divin’ back into history as fur as I’ve doven I want to give suitable credit to my chumb, Uncle Simon Bentley. […] I wuz astounded to see how deep Uncle Sime had doven into the great mysteries of human existence, not but what I’d have thought it out myself, if I’d had time from fambly cares.

   • 1995 May 14, Jack Todd, “Crawford says Nordiques a victim of Rangers’ dirty ‘doven’”, in The Gazette, Montreal, Que., page D5, column 3:

     “These guys have diven – have ‘doven’ – the whole series,” Crawford told this reporter. “We’re not supposed to talk about the refs, but the league has a rule for this. It’s been a big factor in this series, the diving of Kovalev. He’s a gold medalist in diving.

   • 2005, Olin Thompson, The Long Ride (Dean and Egan, the Story of Two Families; first volume), Bookwarren, →ISBN, page 27:

     “The last man out had grabbed a half empty bottle off the counter near the door, two cowboys there had doven under a table to escape the bullets from them two crazy shooters.”

   • 2014, Isabel Cole, transl., The Thing Which Fell From the Heavens, Tredition, translation of original by Gerd Maximovič, →ISBN:

     As soon as he had doven into the planet he had learned how to multiply his strength.

   • 2015, LT Wulf, The World King; Book I: The Reckoning, →ISBN:

     I peekt up and lookt over where Badr had doven and he was already looking my way.

Etymology 2

Verb

doven (third-person singular simple present dovens, present participle dovening, simple past and past participle dovened)

1. Alternative form of daven
   • 1967, “The Good-Good Culture”, in John Cohen, editor, The Essential Lenny Bruce, Panther Books Ltd, published 1975, →ISBN, page 267:

     I vatched^[sic] through the portholes as they would doven and chant / ‘Hey, mein Liebe, heyyyy.’

   • 1974, Jewish Life, page 12, column 2:

     We played at this intelligence base, and then dovened Maariv, again word by word.

   • 2006, William Novak, Moshe Waldoks, editors, The Big Book of Jewish Humor, Collins, →ISBN, page 233:

     THERE once was a king, old and a little crazy, who summoned the Chief Rabbi of his kingdom. “Rabbi,” he said, “there’s one thing I’d like to see. I want you to teach my pet monkey how to doven.”

   • 2010, “Joshua (Joe) Gershman”, in Seemah C. Berson, editor, I Have a Story to Tell You, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, →ISBN, page 178:

     They knew how to doven, to pray, but they didn’t understand what the heck they were reading. And some of them couldn’t doven either!

Anagrams

• Devon, devon

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse dofinn (“dead”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɒwən/

Adjective

doven

1. lazy (unwilling to work)
2. stale (of beverages)

Inflection

Inflection of doven

	positive	comparative	superlative
indefinite common singular	doven	dovnere	dovnest2
indefinite neuter singular	dovent	dovnere	dovnest2
plural	dovne	dovnere	dovnest2
definite attributive1	dovne	dovnere	dovneste

¹ When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite,
the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
² The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

References

• “doven” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdoːvə(n)/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: do‧ven
• Rhymes: -oːvən

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch dôven, from Old Dutch *dōven, from Proto-West Germanic *daubijan, from Proto-Germanic *daubijaną. Equivalent to doof (“deaf”) +‎ -en.

Verb

doven

1. (ergative) to extinguish
2. to muffle, to deaden (a sound)
3. (obsolete) to become deaf

Conjugation

Conjugation of doven (weak)
infinitive	doven
past singular	doofde
past participle	gedoofd
infinitive	doven
gerund	doven n
	present tense	past tense
1st person singular	doof	doofde
2nd person sing. (jij)	dooft, doof2	doofde
2nd person sing. (u)	dooft	doofde
2nd person sing. (gij)	dooft	doofde
3rd person singular	dooft	doofde
plural	doven	doofden
subjunctive sing.1	dove	doofde
subjunctive plur.1	doven	doofden
imperative sing.	doof
imperative plur.1	dooft
participles	dovend	gedoofd
1) Archaic. 2) In case of inversion.

Derived terms

• doofpot
• uitdoven
• verdoven

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch dôven, from Old Dutch *dōvon, from Proto-West Germanic *dobēn, from the same ultimate source as *daub (“deaf, stunned”).

Verb

doven

1. (obsolete) to rage, to be crazy

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

doven

1. plural of dove

Anagrams

• vonde

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse dofinn (“dead”).

Adjective

doven (neuter singular dovent, definite singular and plural dovne, comparative dovnere, indefinite superlative dovnest, definite superlative dovneste)

1. lazy (unwilling to work)
2. flat (e.g. beer)
3. numb (limbs)

Derived terms

• dovendyr

References

• “doven” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse dofinn (“dead”).

Adjective

doven (neuter singular dove or dovent, definite singular and plural dovne, comparative dovnare, indefinite superlative dovnast, definite superlative dovnaste)

1. lazy (unwilling to work)
2. flat (e.g. beer)
3. numb (limbs)

Derived terms

• dovendyr

References

• “doven” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.