carnival

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See also: Carnival

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle French carnaval, from Italian carnevale, possibly from the Latin phrase carnem levāmen (“meat dismissal”). Other scholars suggest Latin carnuālia (“meat-based country feast”) or carrus nāvālis (“boat wagon; float”) instead. Doublet of carnaval.

Pronunciation

Noun

carnival (plural carnivals)

  1. Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
    Carnival of Brazil
    Venice Carnival
  2. A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
    • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
      Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
  3. (US) A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
    We all got to ride the merry-go-round when they brought their carnival to town.
    When the carnival came to town, every one wanted some cotton candy.
  4. (sociology) A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
    • 2010, Gulnara Karimova, “Jackass, South Park, and 'Everyday' Culture”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 33, page 37:
      The social environment contains the ambiguous traces of carnival: it resists the ideology of capitalism and, at the same time, reproduces the capitalist social order.
  5. (figurative) A gaudily chaotic situation.
    a carnival of idiocy

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Japanese: カーニバル

Translations

References

  1. ^ Ottorino Pianigiani (1907) “Carnevale, Carnovale”, in Il Vocabolario Etimologico‎ (in Italian), archived from the original on 2018-09-18

Further reading

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