carne

Forms

carne f (plural carni, pejorative carnàccia)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin carō (“flesh, meat”), continued in the form of its accusative “carnem”.^[2][3][4][1] The word survives in every Romance language: French chair, Occitan carn, Catalan carn, Spanish carne, Portuguese carne, Sardinian carre and Romanian carne.^[3][5][6] In French it gave way to viande as the name of meat as food, and in Sardinian to “pètta”.^[6][5][7] DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance feminine noun with both senses, the flesh of the body and meat as food.^[8]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *karō, and its nearest relative is Umbrian karu (“part, portion”).^[1][3][7] Both are traced to the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”), also found in Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “to cut, shear”) and Old High German skeran (“to cut, shear”), so that “carō” first meant a portion cut off.^[3][2][9][1] Nocentini links this to the cutting of sacrificial meat, which was shared out among those present by rank.^[3] The Italian Wiktionary prefers a link with Proto-Indo-European *kréwh₂s (“raw flesh, blood”), the source of Ancient Greek κρέας (kréas, “meat”).^[10]

The phrase “carne da cannone” “cannon fodder” is a calque of French chair à canon.^[2] Carnevale grew out of a medieval phrase meaning “to take away meat”, recorded as “carnelevare” at Subiaco in 965.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur super natura feminarum of the last quarter of the 12th century, and the first sense it gives is the muscular part of the human and animal body.^[11][2] A Florentine account book of 1264 has charne, and DELI's first literary record of the sense “flesh of the body” is the 13th-century poet Inghilfredi.^[6][4][2]

Semantic evolution

Before 1294 Guittone d'Arezzo used carne for the human being as a body, the sense that runs through the religious language of the flesh against the spirit, and of the Incarnation.^[2][11] The Proverbia already have the meat of slaughtered animals as food.^[2] Old Italian had a wide range of set phrases: carne viva for flesh laid bare by a wound, essere come carne e unghia “to be as close as flesh and nail”, and in carne e ossa “in person”.^[11] In Dante's Purgatorio the souls are told that the poet's body “è vera carne” (“is true flesh”).^[12]

The word also spread to the pulp of fruit (Pietro de' Crescenzi) and, in Dante, to lust.^[13][4] In the plural carni means the skin and complexion, as in carni sode “firm flesh”.^[4][14] Used as an invariable adjective it names a pale pink colour, color carne.^[4][15]

French borrowed the word in slang as carne (1835), “bad meat”, later also a worthless person and a broken-down horse, though French dictionaries prefer a Norman source.^[16][7]

Timeline

• Last quarter of the 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use carne.^[11]
• 1264 – Charne appears in a Florentine account book.^[6][4]
• 13th century – Inghilfredi uses the word for the flesh of the body, and the Proverbia for meat as food.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for the human being as a body.^[2]
• 1835 – French slang borrows carne.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. flesh: the soft tissue of the human and animal body, mostly muscle: La spina gli era entrata nella carne del dito.^[4][14][17]
2. (plural) The skin and complexion of the body: carni bianche e morbide.^[4][14][17]
3. meat, the edible part of animals, especially those slaughtered for food: Stasera non mangio carne, prendo il pesce.^[4][14][17]
4. (figurative) The body and the material side of human nature, as against the spirit: la resurrezione della carne.^[4][14][18]
5. (figurative) Sexual desire, sensuality: i piaceri della carne.^[4][14][17]
6. The pulp of a fruit.^[4][17]
7. (invariable, after a noun) Flesh-coloured, pale pink: un maglione color carne.^[4][17]

Word family

• carnagione
• carnale
• carnalità
• carnaio
• carnefice
• carneficina
• carnivoro
• carnoso
• carniere
• carnesecca
• carnicino
• carnevale
• incarnare
• incarnazione
• scarno
• scarnire

Related words

• Latin caro
• French chair

Usage notes

Common set phrases are in carne e ossa “in person”, essere bene in carne “to be well fed, plump”, carne da cannone or carne da macello for soldiers sent to die, and carne della propria carne for one's own children.^{[4][14][15][18]} The proverbial lo spirito è forte, ma la carne è debole goes back to the Gospels.^[14][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 242
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 773
8. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 82
10. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
11. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 779
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 242
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
17. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli