Hive

Pronunciation

• IPA: /haɪv/
• Rhymes: -aɪv

Origin

From Middle English hyfe, from Old English hȳf, from Proto-Germanic *hūbī (compare Dutch huif ‘beehive’, Danish dialect huv ‘ship's hull’), from Proto-Indo-European *kuHp- ("water vessel") (compare Latin cūpa ‘tub, vat’, Ancient Greek κύπη ‘gap, hole’, κύπελλον ‘beaker’, Sanskrit kū́pa ‘cave’), from *kew- ("to bend, curve"). The computing term was chosen as an in-joke relating to bees; see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/08/08/54618.aspx.

Full definition of hive

Noun

1. A structure for housing a swarm of honeybees.
2. The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.
3. A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd.a wretched hive of scum and villainy
• Tennysonthe hive of Roman liars
4. (computing, Microsoft Windows) A section of the registry.
• 2006, Jean Andrews, Fixing Windows XP (page 352)Windows builds the registry from the five registry hives...
• 2011, Samuel Phung, Professional Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0For devices built with hive-based registry implementation, the registry data are broken into three different hives — the boot hive, system hive, and user hive.

Derived terms

• beehive
• hivemind
• mother-hive
• superhive

Verb

1. (intransitive, entomology) To enter or possess a hive.
2. (intransitive) To form a hive-like entity.
3. (transitive) To collect into a hive.to hive a swarm of bees
4. (transitive) To store in a hive or similarly.
• ByronHiving wisdom with each studious year.
5. (intransitive) To take shelter or lodgings together; to reside in a collective body.

Derived terms

• hive off