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 fliʓu & ʓerestu.
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 a noþer. Ibid., XII. vii. (1495), 418. Wylde coluoures.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 484. Þe colleron þt 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 sb.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., Ser. II. II. (1864), 14 April, 387. Payd John Leveret for mending the culver.
c. fig. An appellation of tender affection.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 98. Cum to me, mi leofmon, mi kulure.
1340. [see CULVER-HOUS].
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, -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 b. The *culuerdoues of auncient league the treweste 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.
