Carp. The Promptorium gives ‘fabulor,’ ‘confabulor,’ ‘garrulo’ as Latin equivalents; nor do we anywhere before the sixteenth century find the subaudition of fault-finding or detraction, which now is ever implied in the word.
Ac to carpe moore of Cryst, and how He come to that name
Faithly for to speke, his firste name of Iesus.
Piers Plowman, B Passus, xix. 65 (Skeat).
Now we leven the kyng, and of Joseph carpen.—Joseph of Arimathie, 212.
So gone thei forthe, carpende fast
On this, on that.
Gower, Confessio Amantis, 1.
Carpet. The covering of floors only at present, but once of tables as well. It was in this sense that a matter was ‘on the carpet’ (i.e. of the council-table). For the etymology see N.E.D.
In the fray one of their spurs engaged into a carpet upon which stood a very fair looking-glass and two noble pieces of porcelain, drew all to the ground, broke the glass.—Harleian Miscellany, vol. x. p. 189.