cleft (n.) Look up cleft at Dictionary.com
1570s, altered (by influence of cleft, new weak past participle of cleave (v.1)), from Middle English clift (early 14c.), from Old English geclyft (adj.) "split, cloven," from Proto-Germanic *kluftis (cf. Old High German and German kluft, Danish kløft "cleft"), from PIE *gleubh- (see glyph).