carnival

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See also: Carnival

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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.[1] Doublet of carnaval.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Japanese: カーニバル (kānibaru)

Translations

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Verb

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carnival (third-person singular simple present carnivals, present participle carnivalling or carnivaling, simple past and past participle carnivalled or carnivaled)

  1. (informal, rare) To participate in a carnival.
  2. (literary) To move about playfully or wildly.
    • 1870 July, “Life in the Mexican Capital”, in The Old Guard, volume VIII, number VII, [New York, N.Y.]: [C. Chauncey Burr & Co.], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 507:
      The spot is a marvel of beauty and taste; and here, where dust and sun carnivaled for so many years, thousands of every class congregate to listen each evening to music discoursed for the amusement of oi polloi.
    • 1983, Alan Stratton, The Hunters, London, Sydney, N.S.W.: Futura, →ISBN, page 161:
      Sitting in the Chevy, Saturday night on Main Street carnivaling around her, she told herself that she understood, that Ross had made a mistake, had pre-arranged this celebration for tonight and thought that his date with her was tomorrow.
    • 2007, Jonny Glynn, The Seven Days of Peter Crumb, New York, N.Y.,  […]: Harper Perennial, →ISBN, page 210:
      A sudden bright white flash exploded before me. A kaleidoscope of silver lines drawn in rapid succession carnivalled in a blizzard of raging energy.

References

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

Further reading

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