carne

Forms

carne f (plural carnes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin carō (“flesh, meat”), written Old Galician-Portuguese carne in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Portuguese word continues the oblique stem ⟨carn-⟩ of the Latin noun, not its nominative: Wiktionary and the DHLF derive it from the accusative ⟨carnem⟩, and Aurélio and Nascentes cite the Latin word in the form ⟨carne⟩.^[1][4][5][6] Already in Livius Andronicus Latin had a new nominative carnis built on that stem.^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician carne, Spanish carne, Catalan carn, French chair, Italian carne and Romanian carne.^[8][1] In most of France the word viande took over the sense “meat as food”.^[8]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kerō (“piece of meat”), from *k(e)rH-n- (“piece”); its Italic cognates are Umbrian karu and Oscan carneis “part”, and further Lithuanian skìrti (“to separate”) and Old Irish scaraid (“to separate”).^[7] Wiktionary takes the Latin noun from *(s)ker- (“to cut off”), the root of κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”) and the English word shear.^[1] Bluteau's derivation from Hebrew and Vieira's from a root “to coagulate” are of their time.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 982 already has the Romance-looking phrase ad pane et ad carne et ad bibere “for bread, meat and drink”.^[11] In Galician-Portuguese the word is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for meat as food (come se senpr' ouvesse comudo carn' e pan “as if he had always eaten meat and bread”), for the body as against the soul, and for the flesh God took in the Virgin (en que Deus carne quis fillar).^[11]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses are those of today: muscle and the soft parts of the body, meat as food, the body as against the spirit, and in the plural the whole body (as suas carnes).^[11][12] Cunha dates the sense “the body, matter, as opposed to the spirit” to the 13th century, and Houaiss the same sense to the same date.^[3][2] Barbosa (1611) has carne de mortorio “carrion”.^[13] Morais (1789) adds carne viva, the pulp of fish and fruit, and the sense “concupiscence, the passions”.^[14]

Derived senses include kinship (é carne da minha carne), the sexual instinct (pecado da carne) and, in Rio de Janeiro slang, an uncultured rich man, a masculine noun.^[2][5] In southern Brazil the word usually means beef, the main product of the cattle ranches of the pampas from the later 19th century.^[15][1]

Timeline

• 982 – a Latin charter writes ad pane et ad carne.^[11]
• 13th century – first records in Galician-Portuguese; the Cantigas de Santa Maria use carne for meat and for the body.^[2][3][11]
• c. 1400 – first record in the CTA, in a Flos Sanctorum fragment (witness 1380–1425).^[16]
• 1562 – first record of carnalidade.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin caro.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists carne de mortorio and carninha.^[13]
• 1615 – first record of carnudo.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais records carne viva and the sense “concupiscence”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. flesh: the soft tissue of the body of a person or animal, especially the muscles (músculo).^[2][5][1]
2. meat, the flesh of animals eaten as food: carne de cabrito.^[2][5][1]
3. (Brazil, informal) beef.^[1][15]
4. The soft edible part of a fruit; pulp (polpa).^[2][1]
5. The human body as opposed to the spirit; human nature with its weaknesses and appetites: a carne é fraca.^[2][5]
6. The sexual instinct, physical love: os prazeres da carne.^[2][14]
7. Kinship, blood relationship.^[2][5]
8. (masculine, Rio de Janeiro, slang) An ignorant, ill-mannered rich man.^[2][5]

Word family

• carnadura
• carnudo
• carniça
• carniceiro
• carniçaria
• carnear
• carnação

Related words

• carnal
• carneiro
• carnificina
• carnívoro
• carnoso
• Latin carō
• Galician carne

Usage notes

Common set phrases include em carne e osso “in person”, em carne viva “raw, with the skin off”, nem carne nem peixe “neither one thing nor the other”, carne para canhão “cannon fodder” and carne verde “fresh, unsalted meat”.^[2][18] Dia de carne is a day on which the Church allows meat to be eaten.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. carne
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. carne
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chair
5. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. carne
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 99
7. ^ 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, p. s.v. carō
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1706
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. carne
10. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 114
11. ^ a b c d e Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. carne
12. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. carne
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. carne
14. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 235
15. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. carne
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. carne
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. carne
18. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. carne