Etymology: Old English græf strong neuter = Old Frisian gref , Old Saxon graf , Old High German grap < Old Germanic type *graƀom ; a parallel type is *graƀâ (feminine), represented by Old Norse grǫf (Danish grav , Swedish graf ), Gothic graba ; < root of Old English grafan to dig, grave v.¹The normal modern representative of Old English græf would be graff; the Middle English disyllabic grave, from which the standard modern form descends, was probably due to the especially frequent occurrence of the word in the dative (locative) case.

Etymology: Old English græf , < root of grafan grave v.¹

Etymology: < Old Norse greife, of obscure origin; probably < Old Saxon *gréƀio (Middle Low German grêve ) = German graf grave n.⁴ (In South Yorkshire documents of the 16th cent. grieve n. and grave are used indifferently.)

Etymology: < Middle Dutch grave (Dutch graaf ) = graf n. Now only as the second member of compound titles, as landgrave, margrave, palsgrave.

Etymology: < French grave, < Latin grave-m, gravis heavy, important. Compare Spanish grave, Portuguese grave, Italian grave. The popular French representative of Latin grav-em is grief ; see grief adj.

Etymology: French grave or Italian grave = grave adj.¹

Etymology: A Common Germanic strong verb; Old English grafan (past tense gróf , grófon , past participle -grafen ) to dig, to engrave (compare begrafan to bury: see begrave v.), Old Saxon bigraƀan to bury, Old Low Frankish gravan to dig, (Middle Dutch, Dutch graven to dig), Old High German graban to dig, carve, (Middle High German, German graben to dig; begraben to bury, eingraben to engrave), Old Norse grafa to dig, to bury (Swedish grafva , gräfva , Danish grave ), Gothic graban to dig, < Old Germanic root *graƀ- , grôƀ- (whence grave n.¹, groove n.) < pre-Germanic *ghrābh-. Cognates are found in Old Church Slavonic grebą I dig (also, I row), grobŭ ditch, Latvian grebju I scrape. Connection with Greek γράϕειν, to write, is no longer accepted by philologists. The strong past tense died out in the 15th cent.; in the past participle the strong form is still the prevailing one. The French graver , to engrave, is an adoption of the Germanic verb; its compound engraver became English as engrave v., which has nearly superseded the native word in this sense.

Etymology: Of obscure origin; possibly < French grave = grève shore. The guess that the word is a derivative of graves , greaves n., rests on the baseless and unlikely assertion that that substance was formerly used in the operation. The verb occurs much earlier than the noun.

Etymology: < grave adj.²