quiver

Definition

A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.

Etymology

From Middle English quiver, from Anglo-Norman quivre, from Old Dutch cocare (source of Dutch koker, and cognate to Old English cocer (“quiver, case”)), from Proto-West Germanic *kokar (“container”), said to be from Hunnic, possibly from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür (“leather vessel for liquids”); see there for more. Replaced early modern cocker, the inherited reflex of that West Germanic word. The mathematical sense originated as German Köcher in a 1972 paper by Pierre Gabriel; it was likely chosen because a quiver contains arrows, while a digraph contains directed edges (also called "arrows").

Example Sentences

• "Don Pedro: Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly."
• "Arrows were carried in quiver, called also an arrow case, which served for the magazine, arrows for immediate use were worn in the girdle."
• "He's got lots of sales pitches in his quiver."