From Middle English haven, havene, from Old English hæfen (“haven; harbour; port”), from Proto-West Germanic *habanu, from Proto-Germanic *habnō, *habanō (compare Dutch haven, German Hafen, Norwegian/Danish havn, Swedish hamn, French havre), from Proto-Germanic *habą (“sea”) (compare Old English hæf, Middle Low German haf, Old Norse haf (“sea”), German Haff (“bay or lagoon behind a spit”), perhaps, in the sense of "heaving sea", etymologically identical with Old Norse haf (“heaving, lifting, uplift, elevation”), derived from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to lift, heave”)), or from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂pnós (compare Old Irish cúan (“harbor, recess, haven”)). Doublet of abra.
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Dated A harbour or anchorage protected from the sea.
And the stately ships go on / To their haven under the hill;1842, Alfred Tennyson, “"Break, break, break,"”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 229:
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A safe place.
Since its conception, the European Union has been a haven for those seeking refuge from war, persecution and poverty in other parts of the world.2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2021:
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A peaceful or tranquil place.
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Graph theory, Mathematics, Sciences A certain type of function on sets of vertices in an undirected graph, able to be used by an evader to win a pursuit-evasion game on the graph.
Derived terms
34 termsBarrow Haven, Blue Haven, Broad Haven, Brookhaven, East Haven, Fair Haven, Fairhaven, Grand Haven, havenage, havener, havenless, havenlike, havenward, havenwards, Lake Haven, Little Haven, Littlehaven, Lock Haven, Milford Haven, Moore Haven, New Haven, North Haven, Peacehaven, Rest Haven, safehaven, safe haven, Shell Haven, South Haven, tax haven, Thames Haven, The Havens, Vineyard Haven, West Haven, Winter Haven
haven
verb
Etymology
From Middle English haven, havene, from Old English hæfen (“haven; harbour; port”), from Proto-West Germanic *habanu, from Proto-Germanic *habnō, *habanō (compare Dutch haven, German Hafen, Norwegian/Danish havn, Swedish hamn, French havre), from Proto-Germanic *habą (“sea”) (compare Old English hæf, Middle Low German haf, Old Norse haf (“sea”), German Haff (“bay or lagoon behind a spit”), perhaps, in the sense of "heaving sea", etymologically identical with Old Norse haf (“heaving, lifting, uplift, elevation”), derived from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to lift, heave”)), or from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂pnós (compare Old Irish cúan (“harbor, recess, haven”)). Doublet of abra.