carnosus

Forms

carnōsus (feminine carnōsa, neuter carnōsum, comparative carnōsior); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin carō² (“flesh”) + -ōsus.^[2][3][1] It lives on in Italian and Spanish carnoso and carnoso.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Celsus,^[5] who uses it of what is covered with or made of flesh, as a small fleshy cartilage, and of meat dishes.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses it of parts of animals, such as a fleshy palate, hands and legs,^[3] and of a flesh-coloured whiteness in the eyes.^[2][3] He also applies it to plants, of fleshy leaves, bark, roots or fruit,^[2][3] the sense Wiktionary glosses as “succulent”.^[1] It has a comparative and a superlative.^[2]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of fleshy parts of the body and of meat dishes.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder applies it to animals and to plants.^[2][3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fleshy, covered with flesh.^[2][3]
2. Consisting of meat.^[2]
3. Fleshy in colour or appearance.^[2]
4. (of plants) Fleshy, succulent.^[2][3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de