carven

English

Etymology

From Middle English carven, a variant (with the vowel modified to match the present stem) of Middle English corven, y-corven (“carved”), from Old English corfen, ġecorfen (“cut, carved”), from Proto-West Germanic *korban, from Proto-Germanic *kurbanaz (“cut, carved”), past participle of *kerbaną (“to carve”). Equivalent to carve +‎ -en (past participle ending).

Adjective

carven (not comparable)

1. Made by carving, especially when intricately or artistically done.
   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Sleeping Palace.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 151:

     The beams that thro' the Oriel shine / Make prisms in every carven glass, / And beaker brimm'd with noble wine.

   • 1903 April 11, F[lora] A[nnie] Steel, “The Beasts That Perish”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 95, number 2,476, London, page 449, column 1:

     I can fancy myself there now, the sun and the sweetness of the orange blossom bewildering in their purity, the green parrotlings in a nest behind a carven god simmering away contentedly like half a dozen kettles until with an express train shriek a red and green parent whizzed past me bearing a dinner for one, […]

   • 1920, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thuvia, Maiden of Mars‎^[1], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:

     The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven […]

   • 1999, Lin Carter, The Quest of Kadji, page 118:

     The architecture was bewildering in its multiform complexity: great, sleepy-lidded faces of stone gazed down from the eight-sided towers; fantastic dragon-hybrids writhed entangled coils above portal and arch; many-armed and beast-headed gods thronged the paven ways, lining entire avenues in rank on rank of carven stone idols so innumerable as to suggest pantheons as populous as dynasties.

Verb

carven

1. (archaic) past participle of carve.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     We both loved her now and for all time, she was stamped and carven on our hearts, and no other woman or interest could ever raze that splendid die.

Anagrams

• Craven, cavern, craven

Middle English

Verb

carven

1. Alternative form of kerven