carrion

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)ker-“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”
2. Latin · derived fromcaro“flesh”
3. Vulgar Latin · derived from*carōnia
4. Old French · derived fromcaˈronië
5. Old French · derived fromcharoigne
6. Anglo-Norman · derived fromcareine
7. Middle English · inherited fromcaroyne“corpse, carrion, something disgusting”
8. English todaycarrion

The noun is derived from Middle English caroyne (“corpse, carrion, something disgusting”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman careine, caroigne, charogne, and Old French charoigne, Northern Old French caˈronië, caroine, caroigne (modern French charogne), probably from Vulgar Latin *carōnia, from Latin caro (“flesh”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”)) + -ia (suffix forming nouns). Doublet of crone. The regular modern English form would be *carren, *carron /ˈkæɹən/ (this is found dialectally; see similar kyarn); the intervening /i/ is either a hypercorrection based on the analogy of words like merlin/merlion or, more likely, represents metathesis of the last element of the diphthong in caroyne. The adjective is derived from the noun.

Words from the same roots