Etymologically
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carnifex

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkar.nɪ.fɛks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkar.ni.feks][1]

Forms

carnifex m (genitive carnificis); third declension[1] It is also spelled carnufex.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from carō (“flesh”) and -fex (“maker, doer”), from faciō (“to make, do”).[2][4][3] De Vaan derives ⟨carō⟩ from Proto-Italic *kerō(n) (“piece of meat”) and Proto-Indo-European *k(e)rH-n- (“piece”), cognate with Umbrian karu (“part”), and ⟨faciō⟩ from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius,[5] whose comedy has “if I ever did otherwise, bring on the executioner”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the public executioner or hangman, common in Plautus and Cicero.[2][3] It is applied to anyone who kills or tortures, a murderer, butcher or tormentor, and very often in comedy as a term of abuse, scoundrel or villain, as Plautus' “you rogue, don't I know you?”.[2][1] Pliny the Elder uses it as an adjective, “tormenting”, of the mind.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “executioner”,[6] and in medieval Latin it is a butcher.[7][1]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius of an executioner.[2][4]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus as a term of abuse.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the executioner.[3][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a tormenting mind.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An executioner, hangman.[2][3][1][6]
  2. A murderer, torturer, tormentor.[2][1]
  3. As a term of abuse, a scoundrel, villain.[2][1]
  4. As an adjective, tormenting.[2]
  5. A butcher, knacker.[7][1]

Word family

  • carnificīna
  • carnificius
  • carnificus
  • carnificō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill