a cutter of figures or other devices in wood. See CARVING.

Carvers answer to what the Romans called sculptores, who were different from celatores, or engravers, as these last wrought in metal.

Carver is also an officer of the table, whose business is to cut up the meat, and distribute it to the guests. The word is formed from the Latin carpor, which signifies the same. The Romans also called him carpus, sometimes scissor, scindendi magister, and stractor.

In the great families at Rome, the carver was an officer of some figure. There were masters to teach them the art regularly, by means of figures of animals cut in wood. The Greeks also had their carvers, called διαρχον, q. d. diribitores, or distributors. In the primitive times, the master of the feast carved for all his guests. Thus in Homer, when Agamemnon's ambassadors were entertained at Achilles's table, the hero himself carved the meat. Of latter times, the same office on solemn occasions was executed by some of the chief men of Sparta. Some derive the custom of distributing to every guest his portion, from those early ages when the Greeks first left off feeding on acorns, and learned the use of corn: The new diet was so great a delicacy, that to prevent the guests from quarrelling about it, it was found necessary to make a fair distribution.

In Scotland, the king has a hereditary carver in the family of Austruther.