Clove (ship)
WordNet
noun
(1) Spice from dried unopened flower bud of the clove tree; used whole or ground
(2) One of the small bulblets that can be split off of the axis of a larger garlic bulb
(3) Moderate sized very symmetrical red-flowered evergreen widely cultivated in the tropics for its flower buds which are source of cloves
(4) Aromatic flower bud of a clove tree; yields a spice
WiktionaryText
Etymology 1
An alteration of clowe, from the first component of clou de girofle, from clavus 'nail' for its shape; this from clavus (nail).
Noun
- A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree.
- The tree Eugenia aromatica syn. Caryophyllus aromatica, native of the Moluccas (Indonesian islands)which produces it
- An old English measure of weight, containing 7 pounds (3.2 kg), i.e. half a stone.
- 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge p. 202.
- Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod 6 1/2 tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. The 'Pathway' points out the etymology of the word cloves; it calls them ' claves or nails.' It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.
- 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 1, p. 169:
- By a statute of 9 Hen. VI. it was ordained that the wey of cheese should contain 32 cloves of 7 lbs. each, i.e. 224 lbs., or 2 cwts.
- 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge p. 202.
Etymology 2
From , from clufu, cognate with cleofan 'to split', hence with the verbal etymology hereafter