Etymology As the adjective predates the verb, possibly from Middle English calver (“interspersed with flakes”), from Old English calwer. Cognate with Scots caller.
1
Of salmon: freshly caught.
calver salmon
calver
verb
Etymology As the adjective predates the verb, possibly from Middle English calver (“interspersed with flakes”), from Old English calwer. Cognate with Scots caller.
My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calvered salmons, / Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have / The beards of barbels, served instead of salads […]1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
Great lords sometimes / For change leave calver'd salmon and eat sprats.1633, Philip Massinger, “The Guardian”, in William Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, published 1845, act 4, scene 2, page 429:
2
Obsolete To bear, or be susceptible of, being calvered.
[A Grayling's] flesh will so easily calver that […][it] is very good meat at all times.1676, Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, The Compleat Angler: