Quiver

Pronunciation

• enPR: kwÄ­vÉ™r, IPA: kʍɪvÉ™(ɹ), /kwɪvÉ™(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɪvÉ™(r)

From Middle English quiver, from Anglo-Norman quiveir, from Old Dutch cocare (compare Dutch koker), from Hunnic *kukur ("flask, cask")

Robert K. Barnhart, ed., Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, s.v. “quiver” (H.W. Wilson, 1988), 878.

(compare Uyghur (Taranči) kökür, Kazakh kökkör), from *köky- ("to suckle") (compare Kalmyk кøкyp (kokür, "leather flask for kumis"), Middle Mongolian (køkygyr, "cowhide water- or wine-cask")).

Wolfgang Pfeifer, ed., Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, s.v. “Köcher” (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbucher Vertrag, 2005).

Replaced early modern English cocker. More at cocker.

Full definition of quiver

Noun

1. (weaponry) A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.
• 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act I, Scene I, line 271:Don Pedro: Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.
• 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 39:Arrows were carried in quiver, called also an arrow case, which served for the magazine, arrows for immediate use were worn in the girdle.
2. (figuratively) A ready storage location for figurative tools or weapons.He's got lots of sales pitches in his quiver.
3. (obsolete) The collective noun for cobra
4. Shaking or moving with a slight trembling motion.
5. (mathematics) A multidigraph.

From Middle English cwiver, from Old English *cwifer

Adjective

1. (archaic) Nimble, active.
• 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Part II, Act III, Scene II, line 281:... there was a little quiver fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus; and 'a would about and about, and come you in and come you in.

From Middle English quiveren, probably from the adjective.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To shake or move with slight and tremulous motion; to tremble; to quake; to shudder; to shiver.
• 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene III, line 12:The birds chaunt melody on every bush,
  The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun,
  The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind
  And make a checker'd shadow on the ground.
• AddisonAnd left the limbs still quivering on the ground.