charnu

Forms

charnu (feminine charnue, masculine plural charnus, feminine plural charnues)^[1] Old French also carnu (1256).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *carnūtus, derived from Latin carō (“flesh”).^{[4][5][6][7][1][8][9]} The Latin form is not recorded but is inferred from its Romance outcomes.^[4][5] Wiktionary notes that the Old French word can also be analysed as charn (“flesh”) with an adjective suffix.^[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan carnut, Italian carnuto, Spanish carnudo and Portuguese carnudo.^[4][6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Roman de Renart (about 1200) the fox speaks of his strong, fleshy paw, in the sense “well provided with flesh, muscular”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Beside its first sense, it has been used since 1542 of fruit with a thick pulp, as in Du Pinet's “very fleshy olives”, and of thick, juicy plant parts.^[4][5][3] It displaced the old medical adjective charneux.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – First recorded in the Roman de Renart.^[4][5]
• 1256 – Aldebrandin de Sienne writes carnu.^[2]
• 1542 – Du Pinet uses it of olives with a thick pulp.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of flesh: la partie charnue du bras.^[10][3]
2. Well provided with flesh, plump, fleshy: une bouche charnue.^[10][4][1]
3. (botany) Thick and soft: feuille charnue; of a fruit, with a thick pulp, fruit charnu.^[10][3]

Related words

• chair
• charnel
• Latin carō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1705
9. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 384b
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert