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Digging Up the History of Delve
We must dig deep into the English language’s past to find the origins of delve. The verb traces to the early Old English word delfan meaning “to dig.” For centuries, there was only delving—no digging—because dig didn’t exist until much later; it appears in early Middle English. Given dig and delve’s overlapping meanings today, is the phrase “dig and delve” (as in the line “eleven, twelve, dig and delve,” from the nursery rhyme that begins “one, two, buckle my shoe”) redundant? Not necessarily. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in some local uses, dig was the term for working with a mattock (a tool similar to an adze or a pick), while delve was reserved for work done using a spade. Although delve has a history of use for literal digging, nowadays the term is often applied to carefully researching or examining something, as in “delving into the past.”
Examples of delve in a Sentence
Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 25 June 2025
The document also delved into a dispute between Uthmeier and Williams about whether the injunction should apply to law-enforcement officers across the state — a dispute that last week resulted in the judge finding Uthmeier in civil contempt.
—Jim Saunders, Miami Herald, 24 June 2025
However, when delving into the numbers involved in the deal, Boise State may only be on national television a couple of times a year.
—Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 24 June 2025
In 2023, researchers delved into recordings collected by six underwater microphones that were secured to the seafloor off the coast in 2008.
—Noah Lyons, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for delve
Cite this Entry
“Delve.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/delve. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
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