▪ I. arber
obs. form of arbour.
▪ II. † ˈarber, ˈerber Obs. or arch.
[a. F. herbière in Cotgr. ‘the weason or wind-pipe of a bird; and the throat-boll, throat-pipe, or gullet of a beast’; cf. also herberie in Cotgr., and herbier in Littré.]
The wind-pipe or weasand; sometimes extended to the whole ‘pluck’ of an animal. to make the erber (hunting phrase): to take out the ‘pluck,’ the first stage in disembowelling.
(Wrongly explained by Sir W. Scott in Notes to Sir Tristram, p. 268: cf. the whole context of the first three quotations, in which the operation is described.)
| c 1320 Sir Tristr. i. xlv, The erber diȝt he ȝare. c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1330 Syþen þay slyt þe slot, sesed þe erber. 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Hunting F iij, Begynne fyrst to make the Erbere. c 1600 Wyll Burke's Test. in Halliwell Lit. 16th C. 54 Take the skine that is abought the herte, and that is called the erber. 1635 B. Jonson Sad Sheph. i. ii, When the arbor's made—Pull'd down, and paunch turn'd out. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Hart, Cutting of the Throat downwards, making the Arber, that so the Ordure may break forth. |