Elf

• IPA^(key): /ʔɛlf/

• Audio:

  (file)

From elf (“eleven”).

Elf f (genitive Elf, plural Elfen)

1. (a group of) eleven
2. football team, XI (so called because eleven is the number of players on such a team)

• Nationalelf

Borrowed from English elf in 18th century literature, from Old English ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Doublet of Alb.

• Elfe

Elf m (mixed, genitive Elfen or Elfs, plural Elfen)

1. elf
   • 1762, Christoph Martin Wieland, transl., Ein St. Johannis Nachts-Traum, translation of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, act 2, scene 1:

     So heftig ist ihr Zwist, daß alle ihre Elfen / Vor Angst in Ahorn-Becher sich verkriechen.

     But they do square, that all their Elues for feare / Creepe into Acorne cups and hide them there.

• Alb (Alp)
• Elb (Elbe)

• Elfe, Elfin (female forms)
• elfisch

Terms derived from Elf or Elfe:

• Elfenkönig
• elfenhaft

• Marshall Jones Company (1930). Mythology of All Races Series, Volume 2 Eddic, Great Britain: Marshall Jones Company, 1930, pp. 220.