Meaning

noun people who have severe hearing impairments

verb make or render deaf

adjective lacking or deprived of the sense of hearing wholly or in part

originFrom Middle English def, deef, from Old English dēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *daub, from Proto-Germanic *daubaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). Cognate with Ancient Greek τυφλός (tuphlós, “blind”). See also dumb. Doublet of daff, dof, and dowf. Cognate with Dutch doof, German taub, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål døv, Norwegian Nynorsk dauv, Swedish döv,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0