Other forms: hovering, hovered, hovers
To hover is to stay in one place in the air. Hover overhead, a hovering kestrel, hover in the doorway.
A kestrel hovers by flying into the wind at exactly the wind's speed, which is why it appears fixed above a verge — hummingbirds and helicopters do it by brute power instead. Of a person it means lingering nearby without committing: hovering in the doorway. In computing, to hover is to hold a cursor over something without clicking. Note hovercraft, hover mower.
1verbhoverTo stay in one place in the air.
“A helicopter hovered above the field while the rescuers lowered a stretcher.”
2verblingerTo linger nearby without committing.
“The waiter kept hovering near our table, waiting for us to order.”
hover is a staying in place.
Middle English hoveren probably comes from hoven, to hang or float in the air, with a frequentative ending. The earlier verb died and the derived one survived.
Proto-Indo-European
*keh₂p-
Proto-Indo-European
*kap- — to hold, seize
Proto-Germanic
*habjaną — to lift; to heave
Proto-West Germanic
*habbjan
Old English
*hōfian
Middle English
hoveren — to float in the air, hover; to stay
English, today
hover
Built from
The verb is derived from Middle English hoveren (“to float in the air, hover; to stay”), probably from hoven (“hover; of a bird: to fly high in the air, soar”) (which it displaced) + -er-. Hoven is probably derived from Old English hōfian, from hōfon, the plural past indicative form of hebban (“to lift, raise”), from Proto-West Germanic habbjan, from Proto-Germanic habjaną (“to lift; to heave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European kap- (“to hold, seize”). The English word is analysable as hove + er. The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA