Forms: α. † carcays, karkeis, 4–6 carcas, 5 carkoys, 5–6 carkes, 5–7 carkeis, -keys, -kas. β. 6 carkace, carckesse, karkaise, 6–7 karcasse, carcasse, -kasse, -kesse, -keise, 7 -caise, -kase, karcase, 7–8 carkass, 8 carkess, 6– carcase, 7– carcass. [Of this we have two types: a. ME. carkoys, -cays, -keis (which survived to 16th c. and even to 1611 as carkeis, -eys), a. Anglo F. carcois, carcas (in Central OF. charcos, charcois, charchois, charquois, still dial. in W. of France) answering to med.L. carcosium (see Du Cange and quot. 1450 in sense 1); β. 16th c. carcasse, later carcase, carcass, a. 16th c. Fr. carcasse, ad. It. carcassa (Pg. carcassa, Sp. carcasa) ‘carcass.’ The 16–17th-c. forms carkaise, -keise, -kesse, are app. a mixture of α and β. In mod. spelling carcass and carcase are almost equally common: the Dictionaries from Bailey and Johnson downward give carcass alone or by preference.
(The ulterior etymology presents many difficulties: see Diez, Littré, Scheler, Skeat. It is to be noted however that OF. carcois, med.L. carcosium, must app. be separated from OF. tarquais quiver (repr. med.Gr. ταρκάσιον, evidently ad. Pers. (Arab., Turk. tarkash quiver, arrow-case), although some confusion of the two words may be suspected in mod.F. carquois (since 15th c.), It. carcasso and turcasso, Pg. carcaz quiver. M. Paul Meyer thinks it must also be separated from the 17th-c. F. carquois in sense ‘mast-head,’ repr. L. carchēsium. But the actual derivation of carcosium, carcassa, and their mutual relation remains quite uncertain. Diez’s suggestion of L. caro flesh, and It. casso chest, breast, or cassa case, trunk, is untenable for carcosium, and not very likely for carcassa.]
1. The dead body of man or beast; but no longer (since c. 1750) used, in ordinary language, of the human corpse, exc. in contempt (see 3). With butchers, it means the whole trunk of a slaughtered animal, after removal of the head, limbs and offal.
α. [1299. Lib. Custum., I. 192 (Godef.). Le carcois de boef. Ibid. (1321), 304. Le carcas de porke.
1314. Sir R. Clifford, in Hist. Lett., &c. (Rolls, 1873). 228. Carcois de beef sale, xx. carcois de moton.]
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 874. Wormes. sal … gnaw on þat stynkand carcays.
1388. Wyclif, Ex. xxi. 35. The karkeis [1382 careyn] of the deed oxe.
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 470. A Karcas of Saynt Martyne.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 62. Carkeys, corpus, cadaver.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 570. Carcosium, a carkoys.
1530. Palsgr., 203/1. Carkes of a foule, granche.
a. 1535. More, Wks., 190/1 (R.). Setting hys carcas in a gay shrine, & than kissing his bare scalpe, make a man a saint.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 56. Lefte theyr carkeses in the wildernesse.
1575. Brieff Disc. Troubl. Franckford (1846), 195. No skermishe, where some … left not their karkaises in the felde.
1611. Bible, Judg. xiv. 8. And beholde, there was a swarme of Bees, and honie in the carkeis of the Lion. Ibid., 2 Kings ix. 37. The carkeise of Iezebel shall be as doung vpon the face of the field.
1630. Lord, Banians, 11. That hee might strowe the surface of the the earth with dead carkeyses.
β. 1528. Roy, Sat., e iii b. A dedde stynkynge carkace.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 19. His carcasse on rockish pinnacle hanged.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 64. I’de rather giue his carkasse to my hounds.
1650. Milton, Lett. State, Wks. 1738, II. 160. That the breathless Carcass may be deliver’d to his Friends.
1663. Flagellum or O. Cromwell (1672), 120. On the 17th December his Carcasse was landed at Bristol.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, I. viii. 90. The carcasses of an hundred oxen.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 33, ¶ 4. Famine who scattered the ground everywhere with carcases.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, 124. To bring home the carcass of the doe.
a. 1849. H. Coleridge, Poems (1850), II. 162. She wept O’er the new-ransom’d carcase of her … Hector.
1875. Jevons, Money (1878), 6. A carcase of meat.
† b. Said of part of a dead body. Obs. rare.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, B v a. Save the carcass of his head on a Pole.
† 2. The living body considered in its material nature. Obs. exc. as in 3.
1406. Occleve, Misrule, 350. My carkeis repleet with hevynesse.
1571. Digges, Pantom., Pref. A iij. This man notwithstanding he were imprisoned in a mortall carkasse … yet his diuine minde [etc.].
a. 1618. Raleigh, Mahomet, 9. His Trances proceeded through the weaknesse of his earthly Carcase.
a. 1683. Oldham, Poems (L.). Was ne’er so fair a creature For earthly carcass had a heavenly feature.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, 179 (J.). He that finds himself in any Distress, either of Carcass or of Fortune.
1701. Collier, trans. M. Aurel., 57. The Declension of your Health, or the Accidents in your Carcass, need not affect you.
1717. J. Fox, Wanderer, No. 12 (1718), 77. The injur’d Animal only sought to secure his little Carcase from farther danger.
3. In later times, in application to the human body, dead or alive, it has gradually come to be a term of contempt, ridicule or indignity.
[1528. Roy, Sat. (1845). Fye on his carkes bothe quycke and dead.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 115. Laden with a heavier lump of this vile carcase.]
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., II. vii. 27. Hercules did canuase so his carkas.
1692. South, Serm., IV. ii. (R.). He thinks that Providence fills his purse, and his barnes, only to pamper his own carcass.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 265. That they might shed blood, like wolves, without hazarding their own carcases.
1827. Pollok, Course T., VII. The miser drew His carcass forth, and gnashed his teeth, and howled.
1870. Bryant, Homer, I. II. 47. Cloak and tunic and whatever else Covers thy carcass.
4. fig. Anything from which the ‘life,’ ‘soul’ or essence is gone; the lifeless shell or husk, the ‘corpse,’ ‘skeleton.’
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl., V. Quails & Manna (1628), 909. The carkasse of the sacrament cannot giue life; but the soule of it.
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 484. Hee is but … almost a Christian. Hee is but the out-side and carkasse and sheath.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 148. The Stoicks were defamed by all other Schooles, for introducing their patience, which indeed was no better then a counterfeit or carcasse of true patience, being onely a stupid senslesnesse, and wretched carelesnesse.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Ess., 19. Who would not wish rather to be descended from them, than from the mere carcase of nobility?
1883. Bright, in Standard, 15 June, 3/3. I was of opinion that we could not go on to sustain a Government based on what I called the corrupt carcase of an old commercial body that had long found that conquest and slaughter were more profitable than trade.
attrib. >1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus ii. 8. 422. The dead and carkase faith not of a few.
5. transf. The decaying skeleton of a vessel or edifice; a ruin.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 6. The Goodwins … very dangerous flat, and fatall, where the carcasses of many a tall ship, lye buried.
1637. Heywood, Royal Ship, 3. In the very Apex and top thereof [Mt Ararat], there is still to be discerned a blacke Shadow, resembling a Darke Cloud … by the Natives … held, to be the still remaining carkasse of the Arke of Noah.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 505. The carcass of a castle.
1879. J. Hawthorne, Laugh. Mill, 43. The carcase of a dismantled and deserted house.
6. The naked framework or ‘shell’ of a building before it is plastered, etc., the ‘skeleton’ of a ship; see quots.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 67. Oaken Carcasse.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 159. Carcass is (as it were) the Skelleton of an House, before it is Lath’d and Plastered.
1704. Worlidge, Dict. Rust. et Urb., s.v. Wind-Mill, The Body or Carcase, or outside of the Mill.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 221. Carcase of a Building, the naked walls, and the rough timber-work … before the building is plastered or the floors laid.
1865. Daily Tel., 18 Oct., 7/3. They get the land on a ground-rent, and ‘run up’ carcases with money borrowed at every stage.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Carcass of a ship, the ribs, with keel, stem, and stern-post, after the planks are stripped off.
7. Mil. A spherical iron shell, filled with an inflammable composition, and having three holes through which the flame blazes; fired from a mortar or gun to set fire to buildings, wooden defences, etc. Formerly also of other shape and material; see quot. 1751.
(In this sense regularly spelt carcass.)
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1980/1. To attack that place with Bombs and Carcasses.
1731. J. Gray, Gunnery, 67. Bombs, granadoes, carcasses, and other shot.
1752. Chambers, Cycl., Carcasse, or Carcuss, a kind of bomb, usually oblong, or oval, rarely circular; consisting of a shell, or case, sometimes of iron, with holes; but more commonly of a coarse strong canvas, pitched over, and girt with iron hoops; filled with combustible matters.
1790. Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., I. 322. The carcasses, bombs, and red-hot balls … fired into the town, had little or no effect.
1810. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., VI. 577. No opportunity of trying the 24 pound carcasses which you have been so kind as to offer him.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 86. Carcasses … the flame from which is … nearly unextinguishable.
8. Comb., as carcass-carrier; -less, -like adj.; carcass-butcher, a butcher who sells meat by the carcass; also fig. (cf. BUTCHER 1 b); carcass-flooring, -roofing (Arch.), the framework of timber that supports the boarding of the floor or roof (see 6); carcass-shell = sense 7.
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 599. The trades of the fell-monger and *carcase-butcher are intolerable.
1835. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), III. 446. An exercise of despotic power such as is not usual among the carcase-butchers of the continent.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 81. When the bullock is killed, skinned, and dressed, the carcass butcher sells it to the retail butcher.
1609. Davies, in Farr’s S. P. (1848), 182. ‘Cast out your dead!’ the *carcase-carrier cries.
1736. H. Walpole, Corr. (1837), I. 7. Headless carcases and *carcaseless heads.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark ii. 20 b. The *karkaslyke sicke man.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 582. *Carcase roofing, that which supports the covering by a grated frame of timber-work.
