culver en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ˈkʌlvə/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
From Middle English culver, from Old English culufre, culfre, culfer, possibly borrowed from Vulgar Latin *columbra, from Latin columbula (“little pigeon”), from Latin columba (“pigeon, dove”).
Meanings
-
(UK, qualifier:south and east dialect or poetic) A dove or pigeon, now specifically of the species Columba palumbus.
Then he walked on a little and came to a goodly cage, than which was no goodlier there, and in it a culver of the forest, that is to say, a wood-pigeon, the bird renowned among birds as the minstrel of love-longing, with a collar of jewels about its neck marvellous fine and fair.
1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir’s Daughter al-Ward Fi’l-Akmam or Rose-in-Hood. [Night 376.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume V, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 49:The palsie plagues my pulses when I prigg yoͬ: piggs or pullen your culuers take, or matchles make your Chanticleare or sullen
c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)Had he ſo doen, he had him ſnatcht away, / More light then Culuer in the Faulcons fiſt.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 281:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| culvers | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
culverhouse · culvertail · culvertailed · culverkey