Hover

How to spell hover

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hover

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hover mean?

1. verbTo remain suspended in the air over one spot, or to linger close by without committing to a position.

Hover in a sentence

• The drone can hover steadily above the garden for several minutes.

• Waiters tend to hover near the table just as the conversation gets personal.

Where does hover come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from Middle English hoveren, a frequentative form of the older verb hoven, which meant 'to linger, to stay in one place, or to remain suspended'. The frequentative ending -er added the sense of doing something repeatedly or continuously, so hoveren described staying poised or floating without settling. The ultimate origin of hoven is genuinely uncertain, and dictionaries flag it as obscure, though it may be related to dialect words for waiting or tarrying. By the late 1300s it was used for birds and clouds held aloft, and the modern figurative sense of a person who waits anxiously nearby grew naturally from that image. Note that the word has a single 'v', which keeps it distinct from the brand-derived 'hoover' (to vacuum); the spelling trap is resisting the urge to double that consonant.

How the word is built

• hov- (Middle English hoven: to linger, stay aloft)
• -er (frequentative verb suffix denoting repeated action)