Make Your Point > Archived Issues > TROVE
If you, too, grew up in the late 80's, you may have heard our word trove for the first time when Ariel sung it in Disney's The Little Mermaid:
"Look at this trove
Treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?"
She defined it for us: a trove is a collection of secret treasures, a cavern of wonders.
Let's trace the history of this word. In Latin, thesaurus inventus meant "treasure found." (That means "thesaurus" literally means "treasure"? Yup! And "invent" first meant "find"? Yup!) Thesaurus inventus became tresor trové in French, then treasure trove in English. And now, sometimes, we clip it down to trove.
See if you can recall this related phrase:
Italian for "well found," ____trov___ means "made up, but still appropriate: having a ring of truth to it, and useful for some purpose, but not actually true."
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
"TROVE"
"Trove" is short for "treasure trove," a phrase we got through French, ultimately from Latin, that literally means "treasure found."
(So, yes, "trove" comes from a word that means "found," but that's not what it means today in English. Still, you might bump into a word or phrase in English where a part of it spelled tro, trou, or trov does mean "found.")
A trove, or a treasure trove, is any source (or collection) of valuable things.
(rhymes with STOVE)
(Countable nouns, like "bottle," "piece," and "decision," are words for things that can be broken into exact units. You talk about "a bottle," "three pieces," and "many decisions."
Likewise, talk about one trove or multiple troves.)
Just the full phrase, if you prefer it: "treasure trove."
"Trove" has a tone that's positive, even juicy and exciting. We often talk about troves being hidden, guarded, found, unearthed, uncovered, discovered, gathered, seized, kept secret, exchanged, publicized, exploited and so on.
A trove might contain physical objects: a trove of memorabilia, a trove of artifacts, a trove of historical documents, a trove of artwork and furnishings, etc.
And, a trove can contain information: a trove of data, a trove of secrets, a trove of evidence, a trove of private messages.
The consulting firm got its hands on a trove of personal data on millions of Facebook users.
"You might think it hard for Earth to hide such a glittering crystalline trove, but [Mexico's Cave of Crystals] was only discovered in 2000, when silver miners accidentally broke through its walls. " —Nadia Drake, National Geographic, 16 March 2018
Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You'll know you understand what "trove" means when you can explain it without saying "stash" or "stockpile."
Fill in the blanks: "In (a certain place) is our family's trove of _____."
Example: "In this worn wooden box is our family's trove of recipes."
Uncommon Opposites!
In each issue this month, I'll give you a rare word and its definition, and you come up with its more familiar opposite.
For example, if I say, "To exfiltrate is to secretly withdraw people from a dangerous situation," then you come up with the opposite: "infiltrate." Or if I say, "An allograph is something written by someone other than the person concerned," then you come up with "autograph."
We'll take these in order from easy to hard as the month goes on. Ready?
From our previous issue: To teleview something is watch it on television. What's the opposite?
Answer: Televise.
Try this today: An aubade is a song sung at dawn. Etymologically speaking, what's the opposite?
1. The nearest opposite of TROVE is
A. PABULUM.
B. PALAVER.
C. PAUCITY.
2. The trove of stolen paintings is once again introuvable, that is, unable to be _____.
A. found
B. priced
C. repaired