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QUARRY (1),
a place where stones are dug, esp. for building purposes. (F.,—L.)
In Shak. Oth. i. 3. 141. The proper sense is a place where stones
are squared for building purposes; hence, a place where stones are
procured which are afterwards squared for building; lastly, a place where stones
are dug, without any reference to squaring. Again, the proper form
should be quarrer, but it was altered to quarry; perhaps by
confusion with quarry, sometimes used as a variant of quarrel, a
square pane of glass (Halliwell). M.E. quarrere, quarer, quarry,
quar in Prompt. Parv.—O.F. quarriere, 'a quarry of stone;'
Cot. Mod. F. carrière.—Low Lat. quadraria, a quarry for
squared stones.—Lat. quadrare, to square.—Lat. quadr-us, square; see
Quadrant. ¶
The sense was suggested by Lat. quadratarius, a stone-squarer, a stone-cutter;
from the same source. Der. quarry, vb., quarry-man,
quarri-er.
QUARRY (2),
a heap of slaughtered game. (F.,—L.) In Shak. Cor. i. 1.
202; Haml. v. 2. 375. M.E. querré, Sir Gawain and the Grene
Knight, 1324. Corrupted from O.F. coree, curee, the intestines of a
slain animal (Burguy); the part which was given to the hounds.
Cotgrave has: 'Curée, a dogs reward, the hounds fees of, or part in, the
game they have killed;' also: 'Corée, a swines gullet, or a hogs haslet.'—Low
Lat. corata, the intestines of a slain animal. Cf. O. Ital. corada,
'the plucke, hasselet, or midriff of any beast;' Florio. β. It was a
general term for the inwards of the slain animal, and so called from containing
the heart.—Lat. cor, the heart; cognate with E. Heart, q.v. ¶
The change of spelling from initial c to qu is easily illustrated by the use of
O.F. quer, cuer, the heart (Burguy). But see Addenda [※]
ADDENDA QUARRY
(2), a heap of slaughtered game. (F.,—L.)
The account of F. curée
given in Littré shews decisively that the explanation given under this word is
wrong. The point is one of difficulty, and turns on the fact that
the O.F. curee and coree, given by Burguy as variants of the same word, are
really quite different words. I have correctly given the etymology
of O.F. coree, formed from Lat. cor, the heart; unfortunately, this is
not the
E. word. β. The O.F. curee appears, in its oldest form, as
cuiree,
and this form is given by Roquefort, with a correct derivation. He
explains cuiree as meaning 'la curée des chiens de chasse, de
corium.' Now it is precisely this O.F. cuiree which explains our
word; it was naturally written as querre (dissyllabic) in Middle English, as in
the quotation already cited; and afterwards became quarry, precisely as we have
clark for clerk, dark for M.E. derk, &c., &c.
Littré gives a
long quotation from Modus, fol. 23 back (of the 14th century), shewing that the quarry, as given to the dogs, was prepared and given to them in the
skin of the
slain animal. This is confirmed by the allusions to the querre or
quyrre in The Book of St. Albans, fol. f 3, back, and fol. f 4, where we are
told that it 'callid is, I-wis, The quyrre, aboue the skyn for it etyn
is.' Hence O.F. cuiree is formed (with suffix -ee = L.
-ata) from cuir, skin, hide.—L.
corium, hide, skin. See Cuirass. Scheler accepts this
explanation as decisive; the old etymology, as given in Brachet, must be set
aside. Moreover, the above etymology is confirmed by the use of the
word in the Venery de Twety, pr. in Reliq. Antiq. i. 153, where we find:
'the houndes shal be rewardid with the nekke and with the bewellis, with the
fee, and thei shal be etyn undir the skyn, and therfore it is clepid the
quarre.'
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