delf

Etymology

From Middle English delf, delve, dælf (“a quarry, clay pit, hole; an artificial watercourse, a canal, a ditch, a trench; a grave; a pitfall”), from Old English delf, ġedelf (“delving, digging”) and dælf (“that which is dug, delf, ditch”), from Proto-West Germanic *delban (“to dig”), from Proto-Germanic *delbaną (“to dig”). More at delve.

noun

1. A mine, quarry, pit dug; ditch.
2. (heraldry) A charge representing a square sod of turf, traditionally taking the form of a simple square (e.g. in the middle of an escutcheon), although modernly sometimes represented with the grass in profile.
   two delves gules
3. Alternative form of delft (“style of earthenware”)
   Five nothings in five plates of delf 1723, Jonathan Swift, Stella at Wood Park
   That's all—do what we do, but noblier done— / Use plate, whereas we eat our meals off delf, / (To use a figure). 1864, Robert Browning, “Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"”, in Wikisource, line 832, retrieved 2012-01-18
   Men can't munch from meatless pots and doughless delf. 1941, Sarah Atherton, Mark's Own, Bobbs-Merrill