The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*kalbōną“to calve”
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*kalbōn
- Old English · inherited from*calfian
- Middle English · inherited fromcalven
- English todaycalve
From Middle English calven, from Old English *calfian, cealfian, from Proto-West Germanic *kalbōn, from Proto-Germanic *kalbōną (“to calve”), from *kalbaz (“calf”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian koolvje, Dutch kalven, German Low German kalven, German kalben, Swedish kalva, Icelandic kálfa.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.