elf [OE] An Old English word related to German Alp ‘nightmare’. Elves were formerly thought of as more frightening than they are now: dwarfish beings that produced diseases, caused nightmares, and stole children, substituting changelings in their place. Later they became more like fairies, dainty and unpredictable, and in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) they are noble and beautiful. Originally an elf was specifically a male being, the female being an elven: Tolkien revived elven and used it to mean ‘relating to elves’. Elfin, meaning ‘relating to elves’ and also used to describe a small, delicate person with a mischievous charm, was first used by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene (1590–96). See also oaf.