Forms: 4 carfuks, carfouk, 5 carfowgh, carfoukes, 6–7 carfox, 7 carfoix, cerefox, 8 cairfax, 5– carfax. [ME. carfuks, -fouk, repr. an earlier carreforc(s, -furcs, corresp. to Pr. carreforc, OF. carrefor(s, -four (mod.F. carrefour):—L. quadrifurc-us four-forked, f. quadri- = quatuor four + furca fork.
As the F. had lost the final c before the 12th c., it is not quite clear how this came into Eng.;—possibly from the Latin form—it could hardly be from the Provençal. The total absence of the r in Eng. is also notable, esp. as fork was a well-known word from OE. times. But notwithstanding these and other obscure points in the phonetic history, the derivation itself appears to be beyond doubt.]
1. A place where four roads or streets meet. (Sometimes extended to more than four.)
1357. London City Rec., Lett. Bk., G 72. Item qe nul Pulter nautre denzein de la Citee nestoise as Carfuks del ledenhalle ouesqz conyns volatil nautre Pulletrie pur vendre.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 62. Cartehowse [v.r. Carfax, or Carfaus], quadrivium.
c. 1450. Merlin, xvii. 273. Thei enbusshed hem a-gein a carfowgh [? carfowrgh] of vj weyes.
c. 1500. Partenay, 1819. No place ther had, neither carfoukes [Fr. carrefours] non.
1662. Phillips, Carefox, quasi, quatrefour, or a place parted into four wayes, a market place in Oxford. [ed. 1678 Carfax.]
1886. C. W. Bardsley, Jim’s Psalm, 17. He comes to a country carfax. Four roads meet.
2. Hence, the proper name of a place formed by the intersection of two principal streets in various towns, as at Oxford and Exeter.
1527. Will of W. Secoll of Stanton Harcourt (Somerset Ho.). My house in Eynesham before the Carfaxe.
1580. Vowell, Exeter (1765), 6. The Conduit at Quatrefois or Carfox.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 107 (1811), 104. Four … streets … do all meet in the midst of the city, called corruptly Carfox.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Carefox, a market place in Oxford so called.
1673. Will of H. Ellis of Horsham (Somerset Ho.). Scarfolkes.
1693. J. Edwards, Bks. of O. & N. T., I. 429. Carfax … the place where Four Ways meet in Oxford.
1709. Hearne, Collect., 24 July. Ad quadrivium, vulgo Cairfax.
1751. S. Whatley, Eng. Gazeteer, Exeter (Devon). Here are 4 principal streets … all centring in the middle of the city, which is therefore called Carfox.
1880. Sussex Gloss. (E. D. S.), The Carfax at Horsham.
1886. T. Northy, Hist. Exeter, xiii. 66. They were taken to Exeter and executed at the Carfoix.
† 3. (In form carfouk): Used to render med.L. quadrivium, in the academic sense of the four ‘arts,’ arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy (cf. ART 7). Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, VI. xiv. Rolls Ser. VII. 69. Þat carfouk ich leve [illud quadrivium omitto], but he [Gerebertus] drank þerof þat he passed al oþere.
