Etymology: < arrive v. Compare earlier arrival n., arriving n.It is unlikely that the following earlier quots. show the same word:c1410 (c1385) G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. (Harl. 7334) f. 1^v At many a noble ariue [c1430 Cambr. Gg.4.27 aryue, c1425 Petworth armeye] hadde he be.c1475 St. Alban (BL Add. 11565) in Notes & Queries (1973) 364/2 A ryue [a1500 Lamb. 72 After that Julyus Cesar..had so subduyd the londe of Fraunce he made an armee in to grete Bretayne; c1450 Egerton arivan; a1475 Harl. 630 an ariuau, altered to an ariua]. In quot. c1410 the readings of the two earliest witnesses of the text are not clear; they show a sequence of minims which can be read as either armee army n. or ariuee (see further discussion in M. Andrew et al. Variorum Ed. Wks. Chaucer (1993) II. 1b. 71 ff., and compare quot. c1425 at army n. 1). A form ariuee would appear to reflect a borrowing < Anglo-Norman and Middle French arrivée (French arrivée ) arrival, (in early use also specifically) landing (late 14th cent.), use as noun of feminine past participle of arriver arrive v. Perhaps compare also Anglo-Norman and Old French arriver landing (late 12th cent.), use as noun of arriver . For quot. c1475 see further discussion by M. Görlach in Notes & Queries (1973) 363–4; Görlach concludes that it may show a parallel to the instance in Chaucer, that the variant readings arivau and arivan appear to be ghost words, and that it seems impossible to determine which Middle French word the putative (now lost) source of the text (a French version of Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea) used.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman aryver, arivier, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French ariver, arriver (French arriver ) to reach shore, to come into port or ashore (mid 11th cent. in Old French), to bring (a boat or ship) to shore or into port (12th cent.), to come to the end point of a journey (12th cent.), (of a thing) to be brought to a place, person, etc., by boat or ship (late 14th cent.), to achieve or gain something, to reach a desired goal (frequently from late 14th cent. in arriver à ), (of an event) to happen (1532), (of a point in time) to come (1553) < post-classical Latin arripare , adripare to come to shore or into port (9th cent.) < ad- ad- prefix + rīpa shore (see ripa n.²). Compare 'rive v.²Compare Old Occitan arribar (11th cent.; also arrivar ), Catalan arribar (14th cent.), Spanish arribar (late 12th cent.), Portuguese arribar (13th cent.), Italian arrivare (late 12th cent.), and also post-classical Latin arrivare to come ashore (from 12th cent. in British sources), to bring ashore (13th cent. in British and continental sources; < French). Specific senses. In sense 11 after the corresponding sense of French arriver (a1755), which was also borrowed into other European languages; compare e.g. German arrivieren (19th cent.). Specific forms. Past tense and past participle forms not formed with -ed result from analogy with the past tense and past participle of strong verbs historically of Class I, e.g. drive v.