Obs. or arch. [a. F. herbière in Cotgr. ‘the weason or wind-pipe of a bird; and the throat-boll, throat-pipe, or gullet of a beast’; cf. also herberie in Cotgr., and herbier in Littré.] The wind-pipe or weasand; sometimes extended to the whole ‘pluck’ of an animal. To make the erber (hunting phrase): to take out the ‘pluck,’ the first stage in disembowelling.
(Wrongly explained by Sir W. Scott in Notes to Sir Tristram, p. 268: cf. the whole context of the first three quotations, in which the operation is described.)
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., I. xlv. The erber diȝt he ȝare.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1330. Syþen þay slyt þe slot, sesed þe erber.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Hunting, F iij. Begynne fyrst to make the Erbere.
c. 1600. Wyll Burke’s Test., in Halliw., Lit. 16th. C., 54. Take the skine that is abought the herte, and that is called the erber.
1635. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., I. ii. When the arbor’s made—Pull’d down, and paunch turn’d out.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Hart, Cutting of the Throat downwards, making the Arber, that so the Ordure may break forth.
