A variant spelling of clof; a cleft or natural opening in rock.
An alternative form of 'clof,' with doubled 'f' spelling common in Middle English before standardization. Both derive from the same Old English root for splitting or cleaving.
Medieval scribes loved doubling consonants in unpredictable ways—sometimes it meant a short vowel sound, sometimes it was just how that scribe's region spelled things. This is one of those spelling variants that eventually lost the competition to the single-f version.
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