Etymology and origin of the Aromanian word carni
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
- meat, especially as food.[2][1][11]
- flesh, the soft tissue of the body of people and animals.[2][12][19]
Related words
- Romanian carne
- Megleno-Romanian carni
- Istro-Romanian cårne
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 317
- ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 181
- ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 203
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Leake, William Martin (1814), Researches in Greece, London (prints Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson), p. 397
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 558
- ^ 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)
- ^ a b Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 385
- ^ a b c Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
- ^ a b Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 119
- ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 25
- ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
- ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
- ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ 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
- ^ Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 338
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Carni.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/rup/carni. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.
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