ppl. a. Obs. In corved herring (corruptly corred, cored): see quots.
1641. S. Smith, Herringbusse Trade, 7. The Corved Herrings, which are to make red Herrings, are those that are taken in the Yarmouth seas, provided that they can bee carried on shore within 2 or 3 dayes after they be taken, otherwise they must be pickled. The Corved Herrings are never gipped but rowed in salt, for the better preservation of them, till they can be brought a shore, and if any be preserved for to make Red-herrings, they are washed out of the pickle before they be hanged up in the Red-herring houses. Ibid. (1641), True Narr. R. Fishings, 4 For the latter Fishing, ir Corved Herrings, the best vent of them is at Yarmouth, to make red Herrings.
Hence, c. 1682. in J. Collins, Making of Salt 106; and 1727–51 Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Herring.
[App. the same as MDu. korfharinck, mentioned under CORVER, of which the exact sense is equally obscure. A suggestion is that, as tonharing is barrelled herring, korfharing may be herring not barrelled, but brought ashore in baskets. Corved would then be ‘put in a corf or corves.’]
¶ In the Dict. Rusticum, 1704, the quot. from S. Smith is given, s.v. Herring-fishery, with ‘corved’ misprinted ‘corred’; whence Ash, 1775, has the spurious ‘Cored (in the herring fishery) rolled in salt, prepared for drying,’ which has been mechanically repeated in many subsequent Dictionaries: some of the most recent invent a fictitious vb. trans. ‘Core, to roll herrings in salt and prepare them for drying.’
