eldertongue

Old English · noun

heofon

Part of speech
noun, masculine / feminine
Declension
strong a-stem
IPA
/ˈxe͜o.fon/
[ˈhe͜o.von]
Syllables
ˈxe͜o · fon (2 syllables)
Modern English
heavenskyceiling

Meaning

  1. sky

    Eall þā lēaf sind brūn, and sē heofon grǣġ.

    All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray.

  2. heaven

    Æfter þisum ġebede, bærst ūt of heofonum swȳþe fǣrlīċ fȳr and forbernde þæt templ, and ealle þā godas grundlunga suncon intō þǣre eorþan, and ne ætēowdon siþþan.

    After this prayer, a very sudden fire burst out of the heavens and burned up the temple, and all the gods sunk completely into the earth, and have not appeared since.

    late 10th century, Ælfric, Lives of Saints
  3. ceiling

Declension

Declension of heofon
SingularPlural
Nominative heofonheofonasheofonaheofone
Accusative heofonheofoneheofonasheofonaheofone
Genitive heofonesheofoneheofona
Dative heofoneheofonum

All forms (6)

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *hebn. Probably related to both Proto-West Germanic *himil and Proto-Germanic *himinaz, but the origins of the relationship are mysterious.

Descendants

heaven

Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heofon · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution