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dig: dig: [13] The origins of dig are not altogether clear. It does not appear to have existed in Old English, although it has been speculated that there was an Old English verb *dīcigian, never recorded, derived from dīc ‘ditch’ (the standard Old English verbs for ‘dig’ were delfan and grafan, whence modern English delve and grave). Another theory is that it was borrowed from Old French diguer ‘make a dyke, hollow out the earth’. This was a derivative of the noun digue ‘dyke’, which itself was borrowed from a Germanic source that also produced Old English dīc (and indeed modern English dyke).
=> ditch, dyke
grave: grave: Modern English has essentially two words grave. Grave ‘burial place’ goes back ultimately to prehistoric Indo-European *ghrebh- ‘dig’, which also produced Latvian grebt ‘hollow out’ and Old Church Slavonic pogreti ‘bury’. Its Germanic descendant had variants *grōb- (source of groove), *grub- (whence grub), and *grab-.

This last formed the basis of *graban, from which have come the verbs for ‘dig’ in most Germanic languages, including German graben, Dutch graven, Swedish gräva, and Danish grave. The English member of the family, grave, is now virtually obsolete as a verb (although its derivative engrave [16] survives); but its nominal relative grave, also formed from *grab-, is still very much with us. Grave ‘serious’ [16] comes via Old French grave from Latin gravis ‘heavy, important’, source also of English gravity and grief.

Its application to a backward-leaning accent (as in è) comes from the original use of such an accent-mark to indicate low or deep intonation.
=> engrave, groove, grub; gravity, grief
excavate (v.): 1590s, from Latin excavatus, past participle of excavare "to hollow out," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + cavare "to hollow, hollow out," from cavus "cave" (see cave (n.)). Related: Excavated; excavating.
excavation (n.): 1610s, "action of excavating," from Latin excavationem (nominative excavatio) "a hollowing out," noun of action from past participle stem of excavare "to hollow out" (see excavate). Meaning "an excavated place" is from 1779.
glyph (n.): 1727, "ornamental groove in sculpture or architecture," from French glyphe (1701), from Greek glyphe "a carving," from glyphein "to hollow out, cut out with a knife, engrave, carve," also "to note down" on tablets, from PIE root *gleubh- "to cut, slice, tear apart" (cognates: Latin glubere "to peel, shell, strip," Old English cleofan "to cleave," Old Norse klofi, Middle Dutch clove "a cleft"). Meaning "sculpted mark or symbol" (as in hieroglyph) is from 1825. Related: Glyphic.
hole (n.): Old English hol "orifice, hollow place, cave, perforation," from Proto-Germanic *hul (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old High German hol, Middle Dutch hool, Old Norse holr, German hohl "hollow," Gothic us-hulon "to hollow out"), from PIE root *kel- (2) "to cover, conceal" (see cell).

As a contemptuous word for "small dingy lodging or abode" it is attested from 1610s. Meaning "a fix, scrape, mess" is from 1760. Obscene slang use for "vulva" is implied from mid-14c. Hole in the wall "small and unpretentious place" is from 1822; to hole up first recorded 1875. To need (something) like a hole in the head, applied to something useless or detrimental, first recorded 1944 in entertainment publications, probably a translation of a Yiddish expression such as ich darf es vi a loch in kop.
hole (v.): "to make a hole," Old English holian "to hollow out, scoop out" (see hole (n.)). Related: Holed; holing.
nacre (n.): 1590s, "type of shellfish that yields mother-of-pearl," from Middle French nacre (14c.), from Italian naccaro (now nacchera), possibly from Arabic naqur "hunting horn" (from nakara "to hollow out"), in reference to the shape of the mollusk shell. Meaning "mother-of-pearl" is from 1718.