Added 9 October 2026
eve
/iːv/ noun
In Latin: vesper Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about eve at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- (Old Testament) Adam's wife in Judeo-Christian mythology: the first woman and mother of the human race; God created Eve from Adam's rib and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
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The day before.
he always arrives on the eve of her departure
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The period immediately before something.
on the eve of the French Revolution
Origin
From a variant of the Middle English noun even (itself from Old English ǣfen), with a pre-1200 loss of the terminal '-n', which was mistaken for an inflection. See also the now archaic or poetic even (“evening”), from the same source. In medieval Europe, days were considered to extend from sunset to sunset rather than midnight to midnight, so the night before a holiday was considered part of it, hence its "eve".
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)