Where does “carnage” come from?
Carnage comes from Middle French carnage, derived from Old French charnage meaning a heap of flesh, from char meaning flesh, ultimately from Latin carrus and Gaulish karros meaning cart or wagon, likely related to the Proto-Indo-European root (s)ker- meaning to cut or turn.
carnage (English): Death and destruction; The corpses, gore, etc....
Definitions
- Death and destruction; The corpses, gore, etc....
Ancestry of “carnage”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle French | carnage | a piece of meat used as bait |
| 2 | Old French | charnage | flesh; meat; a meat-based course of a meal |
| 3 | Old French | char | flesh; meat; cart |
| 4 | Latin | carrus | a wagon, a four-wheeled baggage cart; a cartload,... |
| 5 | Gaulish | karros | wagon |
| 6 | Proto-Celtic | karros | wagon |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱr̥sós | vehicle |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱers- | to run |