calver

calve +‎ -er

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːvə/

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkævɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɑːvə(ɹ), -ævə(ɹ)
• Homophone: carver (Received Pronunciation)

calver (plural calvers)

1. A cow that produces young.

• down-calver
• first calver
• second calver

As the adjective predates the verb, possibly from Middle English calver (“interspersed with flakes”), from Old English calwer. Cognate with Scots caller.

calver

1. Of salmon: freshly caught.

   calver salmon

calver (third-person singular simple present calvers, present participle calvering, simple past and past participle calvered)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To cut into slices and pickle.
   • 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, OCLC 1008120557; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, OCLC 52009618, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calvered salmons, / Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have / The beards of barbels, served instead of salads […]

   • 1633, Massinger, Philip, “The Guardian”, in Gifford, William, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger‎, Act 4, Scene 2, published 1845, page 429:

     Great lords sometimes / For change leave calver'd salmon and eat sprats.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To bear, or be susceptible of, being calvered.
   • 1676, Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, The Compleat Angler:

     [A Grayling's] flesh will so easily calver that […] [it] is very good meat at all times.

• carvel, claver

Possibly inherited from Old English calwer (“curds”), of unknown origin. The development of /lw/ to /lv/ before /r/ would be unparalleled, but there are no clear counterexamples either.

• calvar, calvur

• IPA^(key): /ˈkalvər/

calver

1. (rare, of salmon) Having curd-like flakes throughout.

• English: calver
• Scots: caller

• “calver, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

calver

1. plural of calf (“calf (young cow)”)