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Digging Up the History of Delve
We must dig deep into the English language’s past to find the origins of delve. The verb traces to the early Old English word delfan meaning “to dig.” For centuries, there was only delving—no digging—because dig didn’t exist until much later; it appears in early Middle English. Given dig and delve’s overlapping meanings today, is the phrase “dig and delve” (as in the line “eleven, twelve, dig and delve,” from the nursery rhyme that begins “one, two, buckle my shoe”) redundant? Not necessarily. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in some local uses, dig was the term for working with a mattock (a tool similar to an adze or a pick), while delve was reserved for work done using a spade. Although delve has a history of use for literal digging, nowadays the term is often applied to carefully researching or examining something, as in “delving into the past.”
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Examples of delve in a Sentence
Hannah Malach, WWD, 8 Jan. 2025
This prompted us to delve deeper into the migrant centers.
—Lindsey Holden and, Sacramento Bee, 7 Jan. 2025
Laviolette, who usually doesn’t delve much into injuries after games, did not offer any specifics when asked about the severity of the injury.
—Peter Baugh, The Athletic, 7 Jan. 2025
There are also more detailed studies delving into how alcohol contributes to cancer, including the way in which alcohol is broken down by the body into a compound that can damage DNA in cells, potentially turning them cancerous.
—Alice Park, TIME, 4 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Delve.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/delve. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.
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