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Etymology and origin of the English word quiver

English has two words spelled quiver: one is a case for arrows, the other means to tremble.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkwɪvɚ/[4]
  • UK: /ˈkwɪvə/[4]

quiver1 case for arrows

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1322 a document in the Historical Manuscripts Commission's Various Collections
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman quivre via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *kukur

Etymology

The case for arrows is inherited from Middle English quiver,[5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman quivre, also quivere and quiveir,[6][7][8][2][9] recorded from the first half of the 12th century,[6][7] beside Old French cuivre and coivre.[7][5][6] It is probably of Germanic origin,[9][3][2] apparently a variant or alteration of the word seen in Old English cocer (the source of cocker),[7][8][10] which has cognates in Old High German kohhar, Old Saxon kokar, Old Frisian koker, German Köcher and Dutch koker,[11][3][9] and which is reconstructed as Proto-Germanic *kukur (“container, quiver”).[9][12] Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary take this further back, the Germanic word being probably borrowed, together with Medieval Latin cucurum and Albanian kukurë, from a word in the language of the Huns,[3][13][1] which Cresswell considers one of the few English words that may go back to a Mongolian language;[1] the OED only compares cupra, isolated in a 9th-century French source.[7] Johnson thought the word a corruption of French couvrir or of cover.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A case for carrying arrows: the first record is from 1322, in a document listing "ix quivers cum quarellis".[5][7][3] Etymonline says the early 14th century,[9] and Hoad the 13th.[11]

Semantic evolution

The Wycliffite Bible (before 1382) has qwyuer for the Latin pharetram of Genesis 27:3,[5] where the Old English version has cocur.[10] The same period already had a sexual sense, the female genitals, obsolete after 1663,[7][5] which Green's Dictionary of Slang explains as a translation of the Latin vagina.[15] The figurative use dates from 1479, in Earl Rivers's translation Cordyal.[7] Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing (1600) is the first example of the word for the contents of a quiver, a use that died out by 1749.[7] From this noun English also made a verb, to put arrows into a quiver, before 1643.[7][8] A surfer's collection of boards has been called a quiver since 1967,[7] and Merriam-Webster now records a general sense of a large group or array.[2] Weekley ties quiver full of children to Psalm 127:5.[16]

Timeline

  • 1322 – a case for arrows.[7][5][3]
  • before 1382 – the female genitals (obsolete by 1663).[7][5]
  • 1479 – figurative use.[7]
  • 1600 – the contents of a quiver (obsolete by 1749).[7]
  • before 1643 – verb, to put arrows into a quiver.[7]
  • 1967 – a surfer's set of boards.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A case for carrying arrows, and sometimes also a bow: The archer slung her quiver across her back.[2][7][8]
  2. The arrows held in such a case.[2][7]
  3. A container for a set of items; also, a large group or array of things.[2]
  4. In surfing, a surfer's set of boards of different shapes and lengths.[7]
  5. (obsolete, before 1382–1663) The female genitals.[7][5]

Verb

  1. To put arrows into a quiver; usually in the passive.[7][8]

Word family

  • quiverful

quiver2 to tremble

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1490 Caxton's translation of Eneydos
Ultimate origin
Old English cwifer-

Etymology

The verb meaning to tremble is inherited from Middle English quiveren,[2][13][3] probably from Middle English quiver (“agile, quick, nimble”),[2][13][8][11][17] recorded as cwiver before 1250 in the “Ancrene Riwle”,[5][3] from Old English cwifer-, seen in cwiferlīce (“actively, zealously”),[5][3][10] perhaps related to cwic (“alive”), the source of quick,[3][9] and which the American Heritage Dictionary files under Proto-Indo-European *gwei-.[13] The Oxford Dictionary of English thinks the initial “qu-” probably symbolic of quick movement.[18] The OED calls the verb's origin uncertain, perhaps an alteration of quaver after the adjective,[7] and Klein, Partridge and Weekley simply take it as a variant of that verb.[19][20][16] Etymonline adds that it may be imitative, and compares Middle Dutch kuyveren (“to tremble”),[9][21] though the OED knows the Dutch verb only from an isolated record in Kiliaan (1599).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shake or tremble with a slight rapid motion, in Caxton's translation of the Eneydos (1490).[7][3] Merriam-Webster and Etymonline say the 15th century.[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective it probably came from is much older: the OED has it from the Old English “Rule of St Benet”, meaning active, nimble, quick,[7] Trevisa applied it to swift fish and people before 1398,[5] Johnson (1755) still listed it, with a line from Shakespeare about "a little quiver fellow",[14] and the English Dialect Dictionary found it for brisk, smart, lively in Suffolk, the Isle of Wight and the west of England.[22] The verb moved from physical trembling, whether from cold, rage or fear,[7] to causing something to tremble (1599)[7] and to uttering something in a trembling voice (1660).[7] The noun comes from the verb: Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1715,[3][9] and the OED and Merriam-Webster to 1786, in a letter of F. Burney.[7][2] The phrase all of a quiver, trembling or nervously excited, is recorded from 1823.[7] In the Isle of Man a verb quiver meant to brag.[22]

Timeline

  • 1490 – to shake or tremble.[7][3]
  • 1599 – transitive, to cause to tremble.[7]
  • 1660 – transitive, to utter in a trembling voice.[7]
  • 1715 – noun, a quivering.[3][9] The OED's first example of the noun is from 1786.[7][2]
  • 1823 – all of a quiver.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To shake with a slight, rapid movement; to tremble or vibrate: Her lip quivered as she read the note.[17][2][7]
  2. To cause something to tremble.[2][7]
  3. To utter something in a trembling voice.[7]

Noun

  1. A slight, rapid movement or feeling of trembling: a quiver of alarm.[17][2][7]
  2. A quaver in the voice.[2]
  3. all of a quiver: trembling, or nervously excited.[7]

Word family

  • quivery
  • quiveringly
  • quiverer
  • aquiver

References

  1. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  6. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  11. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  19. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  20. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  21. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  22. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Quiver.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/quiver. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

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