The Two Meanings and Histories of Cleave

Hello,

This week’s word is cleave – with thanks to friend of the blog, Rick Ellrod who asked me to check out why we can say “cleave unto” somebody in a unifying or romantic sense but also use a cleaver to cut something apart. Yes, it may be Saint Valetine’s Day, but I’m thinking about meat cleavers as well as romance.

A romantic cleaver?

Regular readers will know that words sometimes change meaning during their lifetimes. The older the word, the more likely that is to happen. You can even end up with the final meaning being the exact opposite of the original and that’s what I expected to find in this case.

I was wrong.

To cleave, meaning to split or divide, entered Old English originally spelled as cleofan, cleven, or cliven from a Proto-Germanic root word kleuban which gave similar terms to Old Saxon, Old Norse, Danish, and German. Its past tense is recorded from the 1300s, so it’s a fairly old word in the English dictionary. You might know some of its verb variations – cleft and cloven (think of a cloven-hoof, for an example) – which all relate to splits and divisions.

None of this appears to have anything to do with romantically joining with your beloved soulmate by cleaving to them. The answer is surprisingly straightforward and simple for English etymology – the other cleave, despite identical spelling, is a totally different verb in English, and in other languages.

Cleave, meaning to adhere or cling, entered Middle English as celvien or cliven, from Old English clifian or cleofian. The word came to Old English from West Germanic klibajan (to stick or cling) and a PIE root word gloi (to stick) and it generates similar terms in Old Saxon, Old High German, and Dutch.

Despite having the same spelling in modern English the two cleaves were different in Old English and come from different roots – one Germanic and the other Indo-European. The spellings may have converged in English naturally as both words were used and spoken. Cleave to may be rarely used now, but it was an equally popular verb originally.

Nowadays, perhaps to avoid confusion, you’re more like to hear about stick and split for these meanings, but feel free to continue cleaving, in whichever form makes you happy.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)