Forms: 5 Sc. carnaill, 5–6 carnell, 6 karnale, 5–7 carnall, 5– carnal. [ad. L. carnāl-is fleshly (in Tertullian and other Christian writers), and frequent in med.L. as an attribute of relationship, as frater or soror carnalis, brother or sister by blood, in which use it appears in Eng. in 15th c. The theological sense appears equally early, but app. not in Wyclif. The Fr. repr. is charnel: see CHARNEL.]
† 1. Of or pertaining to the flesh or body; bodily, corporeal. Obs.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, XI. 1348. Bot Inglissmen him seruit allace of carnaill fud.
1555. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xliv. 125. Look not you for it with carnal eyes.
1579. Fulke, Refut. Rastel, 745. The Lutheranes admitte the carnall presence.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., i. 22. Carnal Interrment or burying.
1847. trans. St. Aug. on Psalm xlv. III. 240. The Church which coming from the Gentiles did not consent to carnal circumcision.
† 2. Related ‘in blood,’ ‘according to the flesh.’
c. 1450. Merlin, vii. 117. Noble knyghtes … many of hem carnell frendes.
1490. Caxton, How to Die, 8. His wyf, his chyldren, & his frendes carnall.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), 181. Christ our Sauiour … His carnall mother benignly did honour.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 66. Two carnall brothers.
3. Pertaining to the body as the seat of passions or appetites; fleshly, sensual.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1841), 84. Myghty soferauns of carnal temptacion.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 148 b. Blynded with sensualite & carnall pleasure.
1670. Walton, Life Hooker, 37. I do not mean the visible carnal sins of Gluttony, and Drunkenness, and the like.
1829. Southey, All for Love, iv. To carnal wishes would it [Heaven] turn The mortified intent?
b. Sexual.
c. 1450. Merlin, i. 17. That myght haue childe with-owte carnall knowynge of man.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 25 b. Without wedlocke and carnal copulation.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 1013. That false fruit … Carnal desire inflaming.
1686. Col. Rec. Penn., I. 176. He was accused of having Carnall Knowledge of his Brother in Law’s woman Servant.
4. Not spiritual, in a negative sense; material, temporal, secular. arch.
1483. [see CHARNEL].
c. 1510. Barclay, Mirr. Good Mann. (1570), D ij a. Suche one in carnell troubles can no displeasour finde.
1611. Bible, Rom. xv. 27. Their duetie is also to minister vnto them in carnall things.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxviii. § 5. III. 80. Judge whether Martin was supported by the aid of miraculous powers, or of carnal weapons.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 207. He [Wesley] began to doubt the utility, and even the lawfulness of carnal studies.
† b. as sb. in pl. ‘Carnal things,’ temporal or worldly goods. [Rendering τὰ σαρκικά, or Vulg. carnalia, in Rom. xv. 27, 1 Cor. ix. 11.] Obs.
1607. S. Collins, Serm., 89. They haue aduanced & improoued the spiritualls of other men, with the loss & flinging away of their own carnalls as a gage.
1625. Burges, Pers. Tithes, 10. Euery man … that is made partaker of the Minister’s Spirituals, must render Carnals. Ibid., 14. Spirituals doe well deserue carnals.
5. Not spiritual, in a privative sense; unregenerate, unsanctified, worldly.
c. 1510. More, Picus, Ded. All faithfull people are rather spirituall then carnall.
1526. Tyndale, Rom. vii. 14. The lawe is spirituall, but I am carnall [Wyclif fleischli].
1611. Bible, Rom. viii. 7. The carnall minde is enmitie against God.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 212. Had not doubt And carnal fear that day dimm’d Adams eye.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 494, ¶ 1. To abstain from all Appearances of Mirth and Pleasantry, which were looked upon as the Marks of a Carnal Mind.
1865. Mozley, Mirac., iii. 65. To a carnal imagination an invisible world is a contradiction in terms—another world besides the whole world.
† 6. Carnivorous; fig. bloody, murderous. Obs.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 56. This carnall curre Preyes on the issue of his mothers body.
7. Comb., as carnal-minded adj., -mindedness; carnal securitan [f. carnal security; sense 5], etc.
1664. H. More, Antid. Idol., x. 123. Abusing the credulous and *carnal-minded.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 105. This must needes condemne our *carnall mindednesse.
1849. Hare, Par. Serm., II. 30. Spiritual pride, when its froth has evaporated, is apt to settle down into carnalmindedness.
1627. Bernard, Isle of Man, 18. One Mr. Outside, in the inside a *carnall Securitan, a fellow that will come to his Church.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. 112. A most *carnall-spirituall exposition.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xii. This *carnal-witted scholar, as he had in his pride termed Butler.
