culfre

Old English

Alternative forms

• culufre, culefre

Etymology

Unknown. Speculated to be from Latin columbula, from Latin columba, though there are multiple phonetic and adoptive difficulties.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkul.fre/, [ˈkuɫ.vre]

Noun

culfre f

1. dove; pigeon

   Synonym: culfer

   • c. 992, Ælfric, "The Nativity of St. Andrew the Apostle"

     Culfre is bilewite nyten, and fram geallan biternysse ælfremed. Soðlice ða halgan apostolas wæron swilce culfran æt heora ēhðyrlum, ðaða hí nán ðing on þisum middangearde ne gewilnodon, ac hí ealle ðing bilewitlice sceawodon, and næron mid gecnyrdnysse æniges reaflaces getogene to ðam ðe hi wiðutan sceawodon.

     A dove is a meek animal, and a stranger to the bitterness of gall. Verily the holy apostles were as doves at their windows, when they desired nothing in this world, but they meekly beheld all things, and were not drawn by desire of any rapine to that which they beheld without.

   • c. 992, Ælfric, "The Nativity of St. Andrew the Apostle"

     Sē ðe þurh rēaflāc ġewilnað ðā ðing þe hē mid his ēagum wiðūtan sċēawað, sē is glida, nā culfre æt his ēhðyrlum.

     He who by rapine desires the things that he beholds with his eyes without, is a kite, not a dove at his windows.

Declension

Weak n-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	culfre	culfran
accusative	culfran	culfran
genitive	culfran	culfrena
dative	culfran	culfrum

Derived terms

• wuduculfre

Related terms

• culfer

Descendants

• Middle English: culvere, colvere, colvore, colvre, culver, culvre, cullfre (Ormulum)
  • English: culver

References

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “CULFRE”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.