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cleave (v.1) was a class 2 strong verb; but it has grown since cleave (v.1) weakened, which may be why both are largely superseded by stick (v.) and split (v.).
双语例句
1. They just cleave the stone along the cracks.
他们就是顺着裂缝把石头劈开。
来自辞典例句
2. The water is going to cleave a channel into the rock.
水流将在大山中冲出一条峡谷来.
来自互联网
3. The tribe cleave to their old belief even after the european arrive.
即使在欧洲人到来之后,这些部落仍固守著它们古老的信仰.
来自互联网
4. Which may be why we still cleave to his great poem.
这或许就是我们依然坚守着他伟大诗篇的原因.
来自互联网
5. Those who cleave to the latter view include many conservative American politicians.