My research has shown that hoofs and hooves are correct plural forms of hoof. That being said, which is preferable? Which came first in the English language?
Learn English – Correct plural form of “hoof”
grammatical-number
Related Solutions
Well, this is an example of why Google NGrams isn't a precise indicator. When we compare the two directly, aircrafts simply can't get off the ground:
Now, this result is also flawed since it is impossible to separate uses of aircraft (singular) and aircraft (plural). It is also impossible to factor out typos (aircrafts vs. aircraft's) and so on.
The point is, don't read too much into what an NGram shows (or at least take the graphs with a grain of salt), because a great deal of the time what you wind up with is this sort of thing:
(BTW, the huge spike in the use of aircraft in the early '40s is almost certainly due to the air war in Europe and the Pacific.)
The Greek schemata is mostly found in academic writing (e.g. experimental schemata), whereas the anglicized schemas is used freely in both technical and more general discourse (e.g. database access schemas).
Best Answer
The Old English word was hof; its plural hofas would have been pronounced with a v sound—[hoːvas]. Hoofs may be older by spelling, but hooves is probably the older pronunciation. This is backed up by the Middle English spellings houes and hooves, pronounced [hoːvəs]. So you can make an equally compelling case for each.
I like hooves, elves, dwarves, &c. but it’s a matter of personal preference.