carne

Forms

carne f (plural cărnuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin carō (“flesh, meat”), in its accusative form carnem.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian carni, Megleno-Romanian carni and Istro-Romanian cårne.^[2][3][7][8] Aromanian also has cară, which Ciorănescu explains as the Latin nominative kept beside the accusative.^[3][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian carne, French chair, Occitan carn, Catalan carn, Spanish carne and Portuguese carne.^[3][6]

De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic noun meaning “piece of meat”, related to Celtic and Lithuanian verbs meaning “to separate”.^[10] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500.^[2] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century, has it at Psalm 49:14, as do the later psalters.^[11] MDA2's first record is a passage of Coresi printed by Gaster: „nu toată carnea [e] aceeași carne, una carne iaste a oamenilor, alta a dobitocului, alta a peaștelui, alta a pasărilor” “not all flesh is the same flesh: one is the flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fish, another of birds”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The word names both the living flesh of the body and meat as food.^[4][12] The plural cărnuri means pieces or dishes of meat, and also the flesh of a whole body: „îi tremurau toate cărnurile” “his whole body trembled”.^[13][14] It also means the pulp of fruit and the inner side of a hide.^[12][3] Many phrases rest on the word: carne de tun “cannon fodder”, în carne și oase “in person”, prieten unghie și carne “a bosom friend”, carne cu ochi “a dullard”.^[13][4][12]

DELR dates the derivatives: the diminutive cărnicea about 1650, cărnos “fleshy” and cărnișoară in 1703, cărniu “flesh-coloured” in 1868.^[2] Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu and the DA take it from Latin carnōsus, while Ciorănescu also allows a Romanian derivative.^[2][3] The verb cârnosi “to tear flesh; to torment” is unclear;^[3][2] Ciorănescu supposes a crossing with Serbo-Croatian krnjiti (“to cut into pieces”).^[3][2] The French loans carnivor (about 1832), carnație (1848) and carnal (1871) belong to the same Latin family.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – first record.^[2]
• early 16th century – carne in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 49:14).^[11]
• 1550 – MDA2's first record, a passage of Coresi printed by Gaster.^[5]
• c. 1650 – the diminutive cărnicea.^[2]
• 1688 – cărnurile in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]
• 1703 – cărnos “fleshy” and cărnișoară.^[2]
• c. 1832 – the French loan carnivor.^[2]
• 1848 – carnație “colour of the skin”, from French.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. flesh: the muscle tissue of the human or animal body, with the soft tissue attached to it.^[12][1][5]
2. meat: the flesh of slaughtered animals and birds used as food: Nu mănâncă deloc carne. “She eats no meat at all.”^[12][1]
3. The inner side of a hide, opposite the grain.^[12]
4. (botany) The edible part of some fruits and vegetables; pulp.^[12][1]

Word family

• cărnărie
• cărnicea
• cărnicios
• cărnișoară
• cărniu
• cărnos
• cărnui
• descărna
• cârnosi

Related words

• cârnat
• cârneleagă
• Aromanian carni
• Latin carō

Usage notes

Carne de tun means “cannon fodder”, în carne și oase “in person”, and a pune carne “to put on weight”.^[12][13] The plural cărnuri is used for kinds or pieces of meat.^[12][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. carne
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. carne
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. carne
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 300
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1706
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 236
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 61
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 247
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 49:14
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 147
13. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. carne
14. ^ Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871–1876), Dictionariulu limbei romane, 2 vols., Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. 1, s.v. carne
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 40:19