hive

Etymology

From Middle English hyve, from Old English hȳf, from Proto-West Germanic *hūfi (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 (kúpē, “gap, hole”), κύπελλον (kúpellon, “beaker”), Sanskrit कूप (kū́pa, “cave”)), from *kew- (“to bend, curve”). Doublet of coupe, cup, and keeve. The computing term was chosen as an in-joke relating to bees; see https://web.archive.org/web/20150715222122/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/08/08/54618.aspx.

noun

1. A structure, whether artificial or natural, 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.
4. (computing, Microsoft Windows) A section of the registry.
   Windows builds the registry from the five registry hives[…] 2006, Jean Andrews, Fixing Windows XP, page 352
   For devices built with hive-based registry implementation, the registry data are broken into three different hives — the boot hive, system hive, and user hive. 2011, Samuel Phung, Professional Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0

verb

1. (transitive)
   1. To collect (bees) into a hive.
      to hive a swarm of bees
   2. To store (something other than bees) in, or as if in, a hive.
2. (intransitive)
   1. To form a hive-like entity.
   2. To take lodging or shelter together; to reside in a collective body.
      1725, Alexander Pope, letter to Martha Blount […] to get into warmer houses, and hive together in cities
   3. (entomology) Of insects: to enter or possess a hive.