Spot the Frippet: eaves.

So here it is, Merry Christmas...

...sorry. People have told you that much too often already. And, I mean, the everybody's having fun just rubs it in, doesn't it.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve today and what I want to know is, has the eaves you find round houses:


these posh eaves are in New York, Photo by Stilfehler


Miyin Temple. Photo by Huangdan2060

 got anything at all to do with the sort of eve we have today, meaning the time just before something?

Er...

...nope.

It's rather refreshing to find something that hasn't, quite honestly, isn't it.

Spot the Frippet: eaves. This is one of those nice words, like scissors and trousers, which doesn't exist as a singular. The Old English form was efes, and it's a step-cousin twice removed (okay, the dictionary just says related) to the Gothic ubizwa, porch, and the Greek hupsos, height.

The word eve, as in Christmas, comes from the Old English ǣfen.