charnier

Forms

charnier m (plural charniers)^[1] Old French carner and carnel in the Chanson de Roland, charner in the 12th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin carnārium (“place or vessel for keeping meat, larder”), derived from carō (“flesh, meat”), the source of chair.^[3][4][5][6] In Medieval Latin the word was already used for an ossuary from the 8th century.^[3][4]

Cognate with Italian carnaio, Old Occitan carnier, Spanish carnero and Portuguese carneiro.^[2][7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) it is the place where the dead are laid.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “place where the dead are put”, the first to pass into French, became the dominant one; it named in particular the covered galleries around churchyards, such as that of the Saints-Innocents in Paris, where bones were stored.^[4][8][2] Beside it, the sense “place or vessel for keeping meat” is recorded from 1174–1191 and has declined.^[3][4] By metonymy, sailors called a cask of drinking water a charnier.^[4][2]

The extended sense, a place where many corpses are heaped, dates from before 1848 (Chateaubriand), and is now the usual one.^[3][4][9]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – “Place for the dead” in the Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• 1174–1191 – “Store for meat” in the Proverbe au vilain.^[3]
• before 1848 – Chateaubriand uses it for a place full of corpses.^[3]
• 1866 – Larousse records the sense of a pit for animal carcasses.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place where bodies are heaped, a mass grave: on a découvert un charnier près du village.^[9][3][1]
2. (historical) A place where the bones of the dead were laid, an ossuary.^[9][8]
3. (dated or regional) A place or vessel for keeping meat, especially salted meat, a larder.^[3][8][2]
4. (nautical, dated) A cask holding a ship's supply of fresh water.^[3][4]

Related words

• chair
• carnier
• Latin carnārium
• English charnel

Usage notes

A regional word charnier “vine prop, stake” of central France (chernier about 1260, charnier 1390) has a separate source: it is probably derived from charne, a form of charme¹ “hornbeam”, whose young trunks were used as props.^[3][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 382b
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1702
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert