Warren
Warren originates in the Anglo-Norman term free warren, a royal licence permitting the holder to keep and breed game animals within a defined geographic area in which hunting by others was prohibited. The word is of High Germanic origin werien, to preserve. The word has survived in common usage today only to define a place where rabbits breed and live, thus a network of underground interconnecting rabbit burrows, and by analogy an overcrowded place or building. A warrener was an officer akin to a modern game keeper appointed to enforce the holder's right to maintain his warren.
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Famous quotes containing the word warren:
“She blinks and croaks, like a toad or a Norn, in the horrible light,
And rattles her crutch, which may put forth a small bloom, perhaps
white.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)
“The oaks, how subtle and marine!
Bearded, and all the layered light
Above them swims; and thus the scene,
Recessed, awaits the positive night.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)
“The hunchback on the corner, with gum and shoelaces,
Has his own wisdom and pleasures,”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)