hover

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To stay in one place in the air, without moving forward.

   The hummingbird hovered beside the flower.

2. 2
   verb

   To stay close to someone or something, often in a nervous or uncertain way.

   The waiter hovered near our table all evening.

3. 3
   verb

   To hold a mouse cursor over something on a screen without clicking it.

   A tooltip appears when you hover over this link.

4. 4
   verb

   To be unable to decide; to waver between choices.

   She hovered between staying and leaving.

The verb is derived from Middle English hoveren (“to float in the air, hover; to stay”), probably from hoven (“hover; of a bird: to fly high in the air, soar”) (which it displaced) + -er- (frequentative suffix). Hoven is probably derived from Old English *hōfian, from hōfon, the plural past indicative form of hebban (“to lift, raise”), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to lift; to heave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to hold, seize”). The English word is analysable as hove (“(obsolete) to remain suspended, float, hover; to linger, wait”) + -er…

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