The word is parsed as a compound of the verb "to snow" and the verb "to drive": the cloud is defined as the "snow-driving" one. Next to the usual etymology deriving νεφέλη from νείφω and analyzing the -έλη as a suffix, also reported by Choeroboscus and going back at least to Herodian, this one aims at accounting for the end of the word in a meaningful way. It implies assuming as the etymon not the standard Attic form ἐλαύνω but the poetic form ἐλάω. No formal manipulation is required for the second element, and for the first one the same dropping of the [i] as in νέφος / νείφω, νεφέλη / νείφω.