Other forms: eloped, eloping, elopes
To elope is to run away secretly in order to marry. Elope to Gretna Green, they eloped, an elopement.
It implies marrying without the family's consent, which is what made Gretna Green famous — Scottish law allowed marriage at sixteen without parental permission, so English couples crossed the border. The word now also covers small ceremonies chosen for their own sake rather than to escape anybody. Note elopement; and that the word originally meant simply running away, with no wedding involved at all.
1verbelopeTo run away secretly in order to marry.
“Her parents disapproved of the marriage, so the couple eloped to Las Vegas.”
elope is a running away to marry.
Anglo-Norman aloper meant to run away or abduct, from a West Germanic verb meaning to run off. Lope and leap are the same running, so to elope is literally to leap away.
Proto-West Germanic
*andihlaupan — to run away
Anglo-Norman
aloper — to abduct, run away
English, today
elope
From Anglo-Norman aloper (“to abduct, run away”), itself borrowed from Proto-West Germanic andihlaupan (“to run away”). Equivalent to and + lope as well as and + leap (these being doublets). More at lope.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA