# quiver

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈkwɪvə/ · frequency rank #35,475

## Definitions
1. A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.
2. A ready storage location for figurative tools or weapons.
3. A vulva.
4. The collective noun for cobras.
5. A multidigraph, especially in the context of representation theory.

## Etymology
From Middle English quiver, from Anglo-Norman quivre, from Old Dutch cocare (source of Dutch koker, and cognate to Old English cocer (“quiver, case”)), from Proto-West Germanic *kokar (“container”), said to be from Hunnic, possibly from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür (“leather vessel for liquids”); see there for more. Replaced early modern cocker, the inherited reflex of that West Germanic word.
The mathematical sense originated as German Köcher in a 1972 paper by Pierre Gabriel; it was likely chosen because a quiver contains arrows, while a digraph contains directed edges (also called "arrows").

## Easily confused with
- **quite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quite-vs-quiver)
- **quiet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quiet-vs-quiver)
- **queer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/queer-vs-quiver)
- **Quaker** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quaker-vs-quiver)
- **quicker** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quicker-vs-quiver)
- **quieter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quieter-vs-quiver)
- **quitter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quitter-vs-quiver)

## Common misspellings (8)
`qiuver`, `qquiver`, `quievr`, `quiverr`, `quivre`, `quivver`, `quvier`, `uqiver`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/quiver