rooves

English

Etymology

From Middle English rooves, roves, from Old English hrōfas (nominative and accusative plural of hrōf (“roof”)); equivalent to roof +‎ -s.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɹuːvz/, /ɹʊvz/
  • Rhymes: -uːvz, -ʊvz

Noun

rooves

  1. (British English) plural of roof
    • 2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 39:
      However, helicopter engines are on their rooves, and depending on the sea conditions and how badly they crashed, they can overturn easily.

Usage notes

Although still common in British English, the spelling rooves is considered nonstandard[1][2][3] and rare in American English, with roofs being 300 times more common according to Google Ngrams.[4]

Alternative forms

References

  1. ^ Bryan A[ndrew] Garner (2009), “roof, n.”, in Garner’s Modern American Usage, 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 722, column 1: “Pl. roofs, not *rooves. But the mistaken plural occurs with some frequency—e.g.: […]”
  2. ^ “roof”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  3. ^ “roof”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  4. ^ “(rooves_NOUN * 300),roofs_NOUN”, in Google Books Ngram Viewer.

Anagrams

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