Etymologically
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carcass

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɑːkəs/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑɹkəs/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English carcais, also karkeis, carcois and carcas,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman carcois, also carcas,[3][5][6][4] corresponding to Old French charcois,[3][5][6][7] and partly borrowed from Medieval Latin carcasium, also carcosium, used in Latin documents written in England.[8][7][3][2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the early 14th century.[9] The modern form, from the 16th century, is borrowed from Middle French carcasse,[3][10][11] which the OED and Dictionary.com take from Italian carcassa,[3][10] although Etymonline and Klein think the Italian word is itself probably borrowed from French.[5][11] Ayto adds that the new spelling may also owe something to association with case, which meant "body" in the 16th century.[4] The ultimate origin is unknown.[3][5][6][4][12] Etymonline suggests that the word may have been assimilated to Latin carō (“flesh”),[5] and Merriam-Webster derives the French word, perhaps, from carquais (“quiver”), an alteration of tarquais, from tarcasius and ultimately from an Arabic and Persian word for a quiver, literally "arrow-bearer";[13] the OED, however, thinks the two Old French words must apparently be kept apart, though they may have been confused.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The body of an animal slaughtered for meat: ij carkas bovina, two carcasses of beef, in an inventory of Jarrow of 1330.[2] Barnhart dates carkas to before 1330,[7] Etymonline to the late 13th century,[5] and the OED's first quotation, in the Pricke of Conscience, to 1340.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant both a dead body, of man or beast, and the living body considered as flesh, the latter often contemptuously; the OED records this second sense from 1406, in Hoccleve, until 1717.[2][3] Since about 1750 carcass has not been used of a human corpse except in contempt or jest,[3][5] while from 1586 it had become a term of ridicule for a person's body, living or dead.[3] From 1600, in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, it was applied to the decaying hulk of a ship or the ruin of a building,[3] from 1663 to the bare framework of a building or ship before it is finished,[3][13] and since 1614 figuratively to the material shell of something without its spirit.[3] In military use a carcass was an iron shell filled with burning material, fired from a mortar (1684),[3] and in cookery it is the bones of a cooked bird used for stock (1883).[3] The verb, to build the framework of a building, is recorded from 1881.[3][12]

Timeline

  • 1330 – the body of an animal slaughtered for meat.[2][7] The OED's first quotation is from 1340.[3]
  • 1406 – the living body as flesh (obsolete by 1717).[3]
  • 1586 – a person's body, in contempt or ridicule.[3]
  • 1600 – the decaying hulk of a ship or ruin of a building.[3]
  • 1614 – figurative, the material shell of something without its spirit.[3]
  • 1663 – the framework of a building or ship.[3]
  • 1684 – an incendiary shell fired from a mortar.[3]
  • 1881 – verb, to put up the framework of a building.[3]
  • 1883 – the bones of a cooked bird.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The dead body of an animal, especially one slaughtered for food with the head, limbs and entrails removed.[14][13][3]
  2. (informal, humorous or derogatory) A person's body, living or dead: Haul your carcass out of bed.[14][13][3]
  3. The skeleton or framework of a building, ship or piece of furniture.[14][13][3]
  4. What is left of something once its life or vigour has gone; a shell or hulk.[14][13][3]
  5. (cookery) The bones of a cooked bird, used for making stock.[3]

Verb

  1. To put up the framework of a building.[13][3][12]

Word family

  • carcassless

Usage notes

The usual spelling throughout the English-speaking world is carcass, but British English also uses carcase;[4][14] the OED found the two almost equally common, though dictionaries from Bailey and Johnson onward prefer carcass.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins