Culfer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a wild pigeon, especially one that nests in woods and cliffs
2. An old English name for a dove or wood pigeon, once common in poetry and rural speech
3. A wild dove or pigeon, a word now found mainly in older writing and dialect

Etymology: In Old English, "culfre" named the wood pigeon, and English kept the word for centuries, with "culver" and "culfer" as later spellings. Its ultimate origin is uncertain, so the record starts with the Old English term itself. The word survived mainly in poetry and rural speech, where it kept its original sense of a wild pigeon rather than the general "dove" or "pigeon" that later English favoured. Used this way, it was a plain name for a common bird of woods and hedgerows.

Synonyms: culver, pigeon, dove