English

Noun

eft ‎(plural efts)

1. A newt, especially the European smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris, syn. Triturus punctatus).
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.10:

     Only these marishes and myrie bogs, / In which the fearefull ewftes do build their bowres, / Yeeld me an hostry mongst the croking frogs […].

Usage notes

The term red eft is used for the land-dwelling juvenile stage of the Eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens).

Derived terms

• red eft

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old English eft, from Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Compare after, aft.

Adverb

eft ‎(not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Again; afterwards
   • 14^thC, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale in The Canterbury Tales,

     Were I unbounden, all so may I the, / I woulde never eft come in the snare.

   • 1384, John Wycliffe, Bible (Wycliffe): Mark, ii, 1,

     And eft he entride in to Cafarnaum, aftir eiyte daies.

   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter v, in Le Morte Darthur, book XXI:

     Than syr bedwere retorned ageyn & took the swerde in hys hande / and than hym thought synne and shame to throwe awaye that nobyl swerde / and so efte he hydde the swerde and retorned ageyn and tolde to the kyng that he had ben at the water and done his commaundemente

   • 1557, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, The Fourth Book of Virgil,

     And when they were all gone, / And the dim moon doth eft withhold the light, […]

Translations

Derived terms

• eftsoons

Anagrams

• fet, FET

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Cognate with Old Frisian eft, Old Saxon eft, Old Norse ept.

Pronunciation

Adverb

eft

1. a second time, again; afterwards

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *aftiz. Cognate with Old Frisian eft, Old English eft, Old Norse ept.

Adverb

eft

1. afterwards, again

Yola

Noun

eft

1. newt

References

• J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)