haven

From Middle English haven, havene, from Old English hæfen (“haven; harbour; port”), from Proto-Germanic *habnō, *habanō (compare Dutch haven, German Hafen, Norwegian/Danish havn), 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”)).

• IPA^(key): /ˈheɪvən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪvən

haven (plural havens)

1. A harbour or anchorage protected from the sea.
   • Shakespeare

     what shipping and what lading's in our haven

   • Tennyson

     their haven under the hill

2. (by extension) A place of safety; a refuge or sanctuary.
   • 2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian‎:

     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.

3. (by extension) A peaceful place.

• refuge
• sanctuary
• zoar

• Grand Haven
• Moore Haven
• tax haven

haven (third-person singular simple present havens, present participle havening, simple past and past participle havened)

1. To put into, or provide with a haven.

• heav'n, nevah

haven c

1. singular definite of have

From Middle Dutch havene, from Old Dutch *havana, from Proto-Germanic *habnō, *habanō.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɦaːvə(n)/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ha‧ven
• Rhymes: -aːvən

haven f (plural havens, diminutive haventje n)

1. harbour
2. port

• Afrikaans: hawe
• → Papiamentu: haf

• have, haav, haf, hafe, haben, habben, heven, hawe
• (contracted) han, haan, ha

From Old English habban, hafian, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaːvən/, /ˈhavən/, /ˈhabən/
• (contracted) IPA^(key): /haːn/

haven

1. to have

• English: have
• Scots: hae, ha, hiv, have, hawe

haven

1. definite plural of hav

From Old Frisian [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *habnō.

haven c (plural havens, diminutive haventsje)

1. harbour
2. haven, refuge

• havenhaad

• “haven (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011