carnivore

Etymology

It is borrowed from French carnivore (“flesh-eating”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a French word that Etymonline dates to the 16th century,^[3] from Latin carnivorus (“flesh-eating”).^[2][3][4][7] The Latin adjective is formed from carō (“flesh”) and vorō (“to devour”),^[3][8][9] and Etymonline takes these back to Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”) and Proto-Indo-European *gwora- (“food, devouring”).^[3] Other dictionaries see a different route: Dictionary.com derives the noun directly from Latin,^[10] Collins calls it probably a back-formation from carnivorous,^[11] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also points to New Latin Carnivora.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A flesh-eating animal: 1839 in Etymonline.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from Owen in 1854,^[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1850–55,^[10] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the mid 19th century.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective carnivorous came first, from 1646 in Sir Thomas Browne,^[2][12] and the noun followed about two centuries later.^[3][2] The noun means any carnivorous animal or a member of the zoological order Carnivora,^[2][6] and it was also applied to plants that feed on animal matter,^[2][6][5] as the adjective had been from 1868.^[2] From 1961 the OED records a colloquial use, often humorous or mildly disparaging, for a person who eats meat and is not a vegetarian.^[2] Collins adds an informal sense, an aggressively ambitious person.^[11]

Timeline

• 16th century – French carnivore.^[3]
• 1839 – a flesh-eating animal.^[3] The OED's first quotation, of a carnivorous animal or one of the Carnivora, is from 1854.^[2]
• 1961 – colloquial, a person who eats meat, in Ciardi.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An animal that eats flesh.^[5][11][2]
2. A mammal of the order Carnivora, typically with large pointed canine teeth, such as a cat, dog, bear or seal.^[11][6]
3. A plant that traps and feeds on insects or other small animals; a carnivorous plant.^[11][2][6]
4. (colloquial) A person who eats meat; a non-vegetarian, often said humorously.^[2]
5. (informal) An aggressively ambitious person.^[11]

Word family

• carnivorous

Related words

• Carnivora
• folivore
• frugivore
• herbivore
• insectivore
• omnivore
• piscivore
• carnal
• voracious

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology