carnival (English)

Where does "carnival" come from?

English borrowed 'carnival' from Middle French 'carnaval', which in turn stems from Italian 'carnevale'[1]. The ultimate Latin origin reflects the festival preceeding the meat fasting of Lent, most commonly explained as deriving from expressions meaning to remove or dismiss meat, such as 'carnem levāmen'[1] or 'carnem levāre'[2], the latter serving as a calque of Ancient Greek 'apókreōs'[2]. Over centuries, the word broadened from a specific pre-Lenten celebration into general festivities, parades, and traveling amusement parks.

Open questions

• Scholars debate the precise Latin root of Italian 'carnevale', with alternative proposals including 'carnuālia' ('meat-based country feast'), 'carneālis' ('meaty'), and 'carrus nāvālis' ('boat wagon' or 'float'). [1] [2]

Full etymology tree

• carnival (English), 'Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.'
  • borrowed carnaval (Middle French)
    • borrowed carnevale (Italian), 'carnival; festival in the week before Lent'

Ancestors

• *(s)ker- (Proto-Indo-European)
• carnevale (Italian)

Cognates and doublets

• carnaval (English)

Descendants and derived words

• blog carnival (English)
• carnivalesque (English)
• carnival glass (English)
• carnivalic (English)
• carnivalistic (English)
• carnivalize (English)
• carnivallike (English)
• carny (English)
• carny (English)
• carny (English)
• noncarnival (English)
• precarnival (English)

Sources

1. carnival (English) - Wiktionary
2. carnevale (Italian) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris