haven

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A safe place where someone can find protection.

   The shelter became a haven for stray animals.

2. 2
   noun

   A calm and peaceful place.

   Their cottage by the lake was a haven from city life.

3. 3
   noun

   A harbour where ships can shelter from the sea.

   The boats sailed into the haven as the storm grew worse.

From Middle English haven, havene, from Old English hæfen (“haven; harbour; port”), from Proto-West Germanic *habanu, from Proto-Germanic *habnō, *habanō (compare Dutch haven, German Hafen, Norwegian/Danish havn, Swedish hamn, French havre), 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-Europ…

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