Etymograph

English

culver

Culver comes from Middle English culver, and goes back to Old English culufre.

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150culufre1
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500culver1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1590culver1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English culver
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VII: “Had he ſo doen, he had him ſnatcht away,…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150culufreWiktionary, English culver
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500culverWiktionary, English culver
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1590culverWiktionary, English culver. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VII: “Had he ſo doen, he had him ſnatcht away,…”

The story

From Middle English culver, from Old English culufre, culfre, culfer, possibly borrowed from Vulgar Latin *columbra, from Latin columbula (‘little pigeon’), from Latin columba (‘pigeon, dove’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Old English culufre

Today it means

noun A dove or pigeon, now specifically of the species Columba palumbus.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “culver”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Old English culufre / culver

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