Elver

//ˈɛlvə(ɹ)// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A young eel.

    "When these glass eels enter freshwater they transform again into elvers – miniature versions of the adult eels."

  2. 2
    young eel wordnet
  3. 3
    young eel; may be sauteed or batter-fried wordnet

Example

More examples

"When these glass eels enter freshwater they transform again into elvers – miniature versions of the adult eels."

Etymology

Variant of eelfare, originally "brood of young eels", from Middle English *elfare, *elvare, from el (“eel”) + fare (“group of journeyers”). Equivalent to eel + fare. Liberman instead connects the second element of this word to a putative Old English suffix *-for(e), but there is no need to posit such a suffix when the traditional etymology suffices. Furthermore, such a suffix is not securely attested, and the spelling of the word's earliest attestation (as yele fare, ell vare) implies Middle English /aː/.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.