Haves

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /hævz/

Definitions

1. Having possessions or resources
2. those who possess certain advantages or privileges in society
3. individuals characterized by wealth or material belongings

Etymology: The noun "haves" is simply the plural of "have," used in the sense of people who possess wealth, set against the "have-nots." Its wider history is that of the verb "have," which traces back through Middle English "heven" and "hebben" to Old English "hebban," meaning "to lift" or "take up." That original sense of physically grasping or raising something gradually broadened into the general idea of holding or possessing. The plural form has a second, unrelated thread. In dialect use, "haves" is a variant of "haws," the red berries of the hawthorn, and was also used as the plural of "have" in that sense. A quotation from Thomas Keightley's 1850 "The Fairy Mythology" shows children "pickin' haves and blackberries" along a road at harvest time, the dialect spelling capturing the countryside speech of the period.

Synonyms: wealthy, affluent, rich

Antonyms: have-nots, poor, underprivileged