groove [ME] In early use a groove was a mine, shaft, or pit. The word comes from Dutch groeve ‘furrow or pit’, and is related to grave [OE]. From the 17th century it was used to refer to a channel or furrow cut in something and, in the 20th century, a spiral track cut into a record into which the stylus fits. The latter sense lies behind the phrase in the groove, ‘performing consistently well or confidently’, which was first used of jazz musicians and dates back to the 1930s. This is also where we get the adjective groovy from, first recorded meaning ‘excellent’ in the 1930s, specifically in the context of playing jazz well. Groovy was a teenage slang term by the 1940s and became prominent in the 1960s. It was revived by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers film spoofs.