also cive. Forms: 5 cyves, -ys, 5–7 cyve, 6 chyve, 6, 8 sive, (9 shive), 6– chive, cive. [In form cive a. F. cive = Pr. ceba:—L. cēpa, cæpa onion. The form chive prob. represents a North Fr. chive. (Cf. rive:—ripa; cire:—cera.)] It is probable that sense 2 is orig. the same word, though it never appears as cive, and early writers who regularly used cive for the plant, employed chive in sense 2.
In OE. cipe, a. L. cēpa, still retained the sense ‘onion’ (also that of ‘shalot’ or ‘scallion’); but in Romanic the name was extended and transferred to smaller species of Allium. In French, cive included (or perhaps still includes) ‘several small species or varieties,’ besides A. Schœnoprasum, to which the dim. civette (in Cat. cebeta) applies more exclusively. In Eng. cive or chive appears always to have meant this, civet being merely a rare, and now obsolete synonym. In French it is also called ciboulette, dim. of ciboule CHIBOL. Other OF. derivative forms were civol, civon, civot. The form chive is not recorded by Littré, but its existence in ONFr. may be inferred from the derivatives chivon, chivot (Godefroy). In Eng. cive and chive both occur from early times; but the former is the leading form, down to the present [19th] century. The phonetic corruption siethe used by Tusser, and interesting as exemplifying the interchange of v and ð, is still in familiar use in the south of Scotland. The modern prevalence of chive in the leading form is, perhaps, due to association with CHIVE2, arising from the fact that it is for its slender leaves that the chive is cultivated. Chived garlic in 3 clearly points to this.]
1. The smallest cultivated species of Allium (A. Schœnoprasum), which grows in tufts, with rush-like hollow leaves and small clustered bulbs. The leaves are cut for use in soups and stews. Wild chive: a name sometimes applied to the Wild Garlic or Ramsons (A. ursinum).
a. 1400. Ep. Swete Susane, 105 (Vernon MS.). Þe chyue [MS. Phillips c. 1410 cheruyle] and þe chollet, þe chibolle, þe cheue.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 78. Cyuys, herbe.
1530. Palsgr., 205/1. Chyve an herbe, ciue.
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, Gethium is called in englishe a Syue, a chiue, or a ciuet. Ibid. (1562), Herbal, II. 9. Chyue … is not of ye kynde of lekes, but of ye kynde of an vnion.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1876), 94. Seedes and herbes for the Kitchen…. Siethes.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 642. Cyves or Rushe Onyons … have litle smal, holowe, and slender piped blades, lyke to smal Rushes.
1586. Baret, Alv., C. 557. Ciues, cæpulæ.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, I. viii. 11. The root is thicke and clouedlike … Ciues.
1611. Cotgr., Escurs. the little sallade hearbe called, Ciues, or Chiues.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. lx. (1737), 245. Sives, Rampions, Jew’s Ears.
1784. J. Twamley, Dairying Exempl., 90. Pastures much addicted to wild garlick, or cow-garlick, ramsons or wild chives.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. 139. Here grow the humble cives.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 292. The chive … is a hardy perennial plant.
1849. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. vii. 356. He had often gathered shives for the pot there.
1860. Delamer, Kitch. Gard., 46. Chives or Cives … more like a cluster of miniature leeks than a tuft of onions.
2. A small bulb or bulbil; esp. one of the daughter bulbs or ‘cloves’ of a bulb of garlic.
(By Herrick possibly misapplied to the young leaves by confusion with CHIVE sb.2)
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. (1568), K iv b. I saw the see gyrdell [Laminaria digitata] … the rootes was lyke onto garleke, many chyues makyng one great hede.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., Hymne to Lares. To worship ye, the Lares, With crowns of greenest parsley, And Garlick chives not scarcely [Also To Larr].
1678. Phillips, Chives, are the smaller parts of some bulbous Roots, as of Daffadil, Garlick, &c. by which they are propagated.
1692. in Coles, s.v.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. i. 36. Out of a Bulbe or Root of Garlick, chuse a Chive of a convenient Bigness.
3. attrib., as chive- (or chived) garlic = sense 1; chive-cheese, cheese flavored with chives.
1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), III. 335. Leaves cylindrical, awl-threadshaped, as long as the stalk … Chived Garlic.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 304. Chive Garlic.
1883. Daily News, 3 Oct., 2/2. An English maker seized on the happy idea of making chive cheese.
