▪ I. culver1
(ˈkʌlvə(r))
Forms: 1–2 culfre, 1 culufre, culefre, culfer, 3 cullfre, culure, kulure, colfre, 3–4 coluere, 4 colure, coluyr, 4–6 culuer(e, coluer, -ver, 5 colvyr, -uour, couluour, culuor, -uyr, -uour, -vour, (col(l)er, collour), 4– culver.
[OE. culfre wk. fem. (and ? culfer str. fem.), not known in the other Teut. langs. By Grimm thought to be derived from L. columba; but even if we take culufre as an earlier form (in which we are hardly justified), it is not easy to connect this phonetically with the L. word. The thoroughly popular standing of the name is also against its adoption from Latin.]
1. A dove, a pigeon; now the name of the wood-pigeon in the south and east of England.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter liv. 7 [lv. 6] Hwelc seleð me fiðru swe swe culfran & ic fliᵹu & ᵹerestu. a 1000 Cædmon's Gen. 1465 (Gr.) Wæs culufre of cofan sended. c 1000 ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 131 Columba, culfer. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 95 On culfre onlicnesse..wes godes gast isceawed. c 1200 Ormin 1254 Cullfre iss milde, & meoc, & swet..& fedeþþ oþerr cullfress bridd. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 190 Foure wyte colfren. 1398 Trevisa Barth. de P.R. xii. vi. (Tollem. MS.), In Egypte and in Siria a coluer is tauȝte to bere lettres and to be messangeres oute of on prouynce into anoþer. Ibid. xii. vii. (1495) 418 Wylde coluoures. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 484 Þe colleron þ{supt} he was wond to kepe and fede. 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. 15 Egges of wilde foule and culvers. 1595 Spenser Sonn. lxxxix, The Culuer on the bared bough Sits mourning. a 1617 Hieron Wks. (1620) II. 469 Now, a doue, a culuer, is a bird that loues salt exceedingly. 1728–46 Thomson Spring 452 Whence, borne on liquid wing, The sounding culver shoots. 1830 Tennyson Poems 81 The culvers mourn All the livelong day. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. xii. 479 The lark, the thrush, the culver too. |
† b. ? A vessel shaped like a dove.
Obs. (
Cf. columbine n.2 4).
| 1500 Churchw. Acc. St. Dunstan's, Canterb. 27 A culver off latyn to ber frank-and-cense in. 1596 Churchw. Acc. Kirton-in-Lindsey in Proc. Soc. Antiq. 14 Apr. (1864), Payd John Leverett for mending the culver. |
c. fig. An appellation of tender affection.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 98 Cum to me, mi leofmon, mi kulure. c 1340 [see culver-house]. 1382 Wyclif Song Sol. vi. 8 Oon is my culuer, my parfit. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. xl. 61 b/1 She herde oure lorde whiche callyd her sayenge: Come to me my spowse, my culuer or douue. |
2. Comb., as
† culver-dove,
culver-dung;
culver-like adj.;
† culver-bird, a young pigeon;
culver-headed a. (
dial.), soft-headed, stupid (Forby);
† culver-hole, a dove-cote, pigeon-hole;
† culverwort = columbine. Also culver-foot, -house, -tail.
| 1382 Wyclif Lev. v. 7 Offre he two turturs, or two *culuer bryddis. |
| 1567 Drant Horace's Epist. x. D vij, The *culuer⁓doues of auncient league The trewest twaine that bee. |
| 1581 Lambarde Eiren. iv. iv. (1602) 437 If any Tanner..haue vsed any other, then Lime, *Culuerdung, Hendung, cold Water..and Okenbarke. |
| 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Alveolus, a *culuer hole, or a place made of woode for culuers. |
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 130 Angelike chastitie, *culverlike simplicitie. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal App. to Table, *Culverwort is Columbine. |
▪ II. † ˈculver2 rare—1.
Used for
culverin (
perh. by confusion with
prec.).
| 1805 Scott Last Minstr. iv. xx, Falcon and culver, on each tower, Stood prompt their deadly hail to shower. |