dove [ME] The dove gets its name from Old Norse dufa. In politics a dove, a person who advocates peaceful or conciliatory policies, contrasts with a *hawk, a more warlike hardliner. The terms emerged in the early 1960s at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, when the Soviet Union threatened to install missiles in Cuba within striking distance of the USA. More generally, the dove has long been a symbol of peace and calm, in reference to the dove sent out by Noah after the Flood (see olive), and is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit in Christian iconography [E17th].