culverkeysn.
1. A popular name of various plants, the flowers of which suggest a bunch of keys.
a. In 17th cent. writers, and still in Somerset, etc., the wild Hyacinth or Blue-bell, Scilla nutans.Commentators on Dennys and Walton have wrongly guessed Columbine, Meadow Cranesbill, Orchis mascula.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > lily and allied flowers > bluebell and allied flowers > bluebell or wild hyacinth
harebell1387
crow-leekc1450
wild hyacinth1578
lily hyacinth1597
lily jacinth1597
culverkeysa1609
crow-bellsa1697
bluebell1755
wood hyacinth1897
a.
a1609 J. Dennys Secrets of Angling (1613) i. xxxvii. sig. B7 Pale Ganderglass, and azour Culverkayes.
1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler xi. 214 I could..see here a Boy gathering Lillies and Lady-smocks, and there a Girle cropping Culverkeys and Cowslips. View more context for this quotation
1873 Jrnl. Hort., Cottage Gardener, & Country Gentleman 1 May 350/2 The Culverkey is well known in Somersetshire, and applies to the Bluebell (Hyacinthus non-scriptus). In Oxfordshire and Essex the same flower is by some called Culvers.
b. The Cowslip. (In some parts said to be the Oxlip; but cowslip and oxlip are confounded dialectally.)
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1736 S. Pegge Alphabet of Kenticisms Culverkeys, cowslips.
1873 Jrnl. Hort., Cottage Gardener, & Country Gentleman 1 May 350/2 The term Culverkeys is in general use among all the poorer classes of this neighbourhood [Ashford], and is applied to the Cowslip (Primula veris)..Culverkey wine is a much-admired beverage.
1878–86 Britten & Holland citing Field 26 June 1876 Coverkeys or Covey-keys, the Oxlip—not the true Primula elatior, but the plant known as P. variabilis. Kent.
1887 W. D. Parish & W. F. Shaw Dict. Kentish Dial. Culver key, the cowslip.
c. In Clare, apparently a pale-flowered species of Vetch, ? Vicia sepium or V. sylvatica.
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1835 J. Clare Rural Muse 68 Here I in cutting nosegays would delight, The lambtoe tuft, the paler culverkey.
2. The seedpods of the ash, ash-keys. dialect.
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1790 F. Grose Provinc. Gloss. (ed. 2) (Britt. & Holl.).
1831 G. Johnston Flora Berwick-upon-Tweed
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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