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plural elves
(astronomy, meteorology) an upper atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, rapidly expanding disk-shaped regions of luminosity, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, which occur high above energetic cloud-to-ground lightning of positive or negative polarity quotations
It is ikely that the first elve was recorded with the Space Shuttle low-light camera.
2006, Martin Füllekrug, Eugene A. Mareev, Michael J. Rycroft, Sprites, elves and intense lightning discharges, page 37
Obsolete form of elf. quotations examples
Is it the offspring of thoughtless animal spirits, or the elve of fancy continually flitting round the expected pleasure?
1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 61