Should etymology be taken into account in scrabble?

so we had the rule that "if a word is in the dictionary it counts"...we also had the rule that if it is another language that it counts as long as it is in the dictionary...the word that was placed on the board was "elve" which is the middle english form of elfish..."elve" itself was not listed on its own, but was used in the definition of another word...should it count?