dive
pronunciation
How to pronounce dive in British English:
UK [daɪv]
How to pronounce dive in American English:
US [daɪv]
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- Noun:
- a cheap disreputable nightclub or dance hall
- a headlong plunge into water
- a steep nose-down descent by an aircraft
-
- Verb:
- drop steeply
- plunge into water
- swim under water
Word Origin
- dive
- dive: [OE] Old English dyfan ‘dive’ came from a prehistoric Germanic *dūbjan. This was a derivative of the base *d(e)ub-, a variant of which, *d(e)up-, was the source of English deep and dip. The colloquial use of the noun for a disreputable bar, nightclub, etc, which comes from 1880s America, is probably a reference to someone ‘diving’ out of sight into such an establishment, which was often in a basement.=> deep, dip
- dive (v.)
- mid-13c., from Old English dufan "to dive, duck, sink" (intransitive, class II strong verb; past tense deaf, past participle dofen) and dyfan "to dip, submerge" (weak, transitive), from Proto-Germanic verb *dubijan, from PIE *dheub- "deep, hollow" (see deep (adj.)). Past tense dove is a later formation, perhaps on analogy of drive/drove. Related: Diving. Dive bomber attested by 1939.
- dive (n.)
- c. 1700, from dive (v.). Sense of "disreputable bar" is first recorded American English 1871, perhaps because they were usually in basements, and going into one was both a literal and figurative "diving."
Example
- 1. Rmst is considering a seventh dive next year .
- 2. These days , those who can afford it dive using compressors .
- 3. Us diver katie bell comes up for air after a dive in the 10m platform competition .
- 4. Since I learned to dive here on the yasawa islands , fiji has a special place in my heart .
- 5. Those guys also decided not to drive nor to dive , just to take their oars to the deep underground .