Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Aromanian word carni

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1770 Kavalliotis's Protopeiria
Inherited from
Latin caro
Ultimate origin
Latin carō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin caro
Aromanian carni
French chair
Italian carne
From the same root
Latin carmino ← caro
Latin carnarium ← caro

Forms

carni f (plural cãrnuri or cãrnji, definite singular carnea)[1]

  • Plural cãrnuri or cãrnji, definite singular carnea.[2][1]
  • Other spellings: carne, carrã and carre in Wiktionary;[1] CARNE in Papahagi's dictionary, plural că'rnuri (and că'rn'i in Weigand);[3] carni, plural cărnuri, in the Romanian-based spelling of DIARO;[4] κάρνε (kárne), plural kårnuri and karni, in Nikolaidis's Greek script;[5] Κάρνε in Kavalliotis's word list, read karne by its editor;[6] karne in Daniil's Tetraglosson.[7]
  • A short form cară stands beside carne in Pascu and in the Basme glossary;[8][9] Ciorănescu explains the two forms by the survival of the Latin nominative beside the accusative.[10]
  • Regional forms: k'arni in the village of Turia;[11] cárne, plural cắrnuri, in the dialect of Metsovo;[12] cárni in the glossary of the Aromanian dialect atlas.[13]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin carō (“flesh, meat”), through its accusative case,[3][8][1] as Nikolaidis also derived it.[5]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian carne, Megleno-Romanian carni and Istro-Romanian cårne.[10][14][15][16] Ciorănescu takes the Aromanian short form cară from the Latin nominative and carne from the accusative.[10] The Latin word lives on across Romance, in Italian carne, Spanish carne, Portuguese carne, Catalan carn and French chair;[17][15] in most of France it gave way to viande in the sense of meat as food.[17]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kerō(n) (“piece of meat”) and Proto-Indo-European *k(e)rH-n- (“piece”).[18] Its Italic relatives are Umbrian karu and Oscan carneis, "part" (of the assembly); outside Italic he compares Old Irish scaraid and Lithuanian skìrti, "to separate", and LIV's root *(s)kerH- (“to separate, divide”).[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's Greek–Aromanian–Albanian word list of 1770, where Κάρνε translates Modern Greek κρέας (kréas, “meat”).[6]

Semantic evolution

Aromanian kept the Latin sense: the word means meat and the flesh of the body, the tissue that makes up the muscles of people and animals.[2][3][12] Several set phrases turn on getting fat or thin: DDA quotes óïle băgáră cárne ("the sheep have put on flesh, grown fat") and s' tukí cárnea di pri tíne ("the flesh melted off you", you have grown thin),[3] and Cunia bag carni "I put on weight".[2] In the dialect atlas the word names parts of the leg: carnea di câlámi "the calf" and carnea aţea groasa "the thigh".[13]

Timeline

  • 1770 – Κάρνε “meat” in Kavalliotis's word list.[6]
  • 1794–1802 – karne in Daniil's Tetraglosson, as printed by Leake in 1814.[7]
  • 1905 – carne and cară “flesh, meat” in the glossary of P. Papahagi's tales.[9]
  • 1909 – kárne, plural kårnuri and karni, in Nikolaidis's dictionary.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. meat, especially as food.[2][1][11]
  2. flesh, the soft tissue of the body of people and animals.[2][12][19]
  • Romanian carne
  • Megleno-Romanian carni
  • Istro-Romanian cårne

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 236
  3. ^ a b c d Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 317
  4. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 181
  5. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 203
  6. ^ a b c Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 73
  7. ^ a b Leake, William Martin (1814), Researches in Greece, London (prints Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson), p. 397
  8. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 58
  9. ^ a b Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 558
  10. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  11. ^ a b Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 385
  12. ^ a b c Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  13. ^ a b Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 119
  14. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 25
  15. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  16. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  17. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  18. ^ 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
  19. ^ Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 338

Related etymologies

  • featã · also from Latin
  • cu · also from Latin
  • cã · also from Latin
  • tu · also from Latin
  • shi · also from Latin
  • di · also from Latin
  • am · also from Latin
  • yin · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Carni.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/rup/carni. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·