rooves

English

Etymology

From Middle English rooves, roves, from Old English hrōfas (nominative and accusative plural of hrōf (“roof”)); equivalent to roof +‎ -s.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɹuːvz/
Rhymes: -uːvz

Noun

rooves

(UK, uncommon, often proscribed) plural of roof
- 2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 39:
  However, helicopter engines are on their rooves, and depending on the sea conditions and how badly they crashed, they can overturn easily.

Usage notes

The spelling rooves is considered nonstandard^[1]^[2]^[3] and rare in American English, with roofs being 300 times more common according to Google Ngrams.^[4]

Alternative forms

roofs

References

^ Bryan A[ndrew] Garner (2009) “roof, n.”, in Garner’s Modern American Usage, 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 722, column 1: “Pl. roofs, not *rooves. But the mistaken plural occurs with some frequency—e.g.: […]”
^ “roof”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
^ “roof”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
^ (rooves_NOUN * 300),roofs_NOUN at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.

Anagrams

overos

[1] Bryan A[ndrew] Garner (2009) “roof, n.”, in Garner’s Modern American Usage, 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 722, column 1: “Pl. roofs, not *rooves. But the mistaken plural occurs with some frequency—e.g.: […]”

[2] “roof”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

[3] “roof”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

[4] (rooves_NOUN * 300),roofs_NOUN at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.

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