Archaic or dialectal past tense of 'dive,' meaning to plunge into water.
From Old English 'dufan,' related to Old Norse 'dúfa.' The modern regular past tense became 'dived,' but 'dove' emerged as an American variant, with 'dowve' being an earlier or dialectal form.
English is constantly changing its irregular verbs—'dive/dived/dove' shows how a once-standard form like 'dowve' gets replaced by newer variants as language naturally evolves.
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