Forms: 6 carnoval, carnevale, 7 carnevall, carnivall, 7–8 carnaval, 7– carnival. [a. It. carnevale, carnovale (whence F. carnaval), evidently related to the med.L. (11–12th c.) names carnelevārium, carnilevāria, carnilevāmen, cited by Carpentier in additions to Du Cange. These appear to originate in a L. *carnem levāre, or It. *carne levare (with infinitive used subst. as in il levar del sole sunrise), meaning ‘the putting away or removal of flesh (as food),’ the name being originally proper to the eve of Ash Wednesday. The actual It. carnevale appears to have come through the intermediate carnelevale, cited by Carpentier from a document of 1130.
The history of the word is illustrated by the parallel med.L. name carnem laxare (cited by Carpentier from a charter of 1050), corresp. to It. *carne lasciare ‘leaving or forsaking flesh,’ whence, app. by contraction, the modern carnasciale = carnevale. Carnem laxare, *carne lasciare, *carnelasciale, carnasciale, form a series exactly parallel to *carnem levare, *carne levare, carnelevale, carnevale. Other names having a similar reference are, for Shrove Tuesday, carnicapium ‘flesh-taking,’ and carnivora [dies]; for Lent or its beginning, carniprivium, carnisprivium, privicarnium, f. privare to deprive. In all these, ‘flesh’ means meat, and that it was understood to mean the same in carnelevare is shown by many early quotations in Du Cange; e.g., in a MS. of beg. of 13th c. ‘De ludo Carnelevar. In Dominica dimissionis carnis,’ etc. Also ‘Dominica ad vel ante carnes tollendas’; with which compare the Spanish carnes tolendas, ‘shrove-tide.’ We must therefore entirely reject the suggestion founded on another sense of levare, ‘to relieve, ease,’ that carnelevarium meant ‘the solace of the flesh (i.e., body)’ before the austerities of Lent. The explanations ‘farewell flesh, farewell to flesh’ (from L. vale) found already in Florio, and ‘down with flesh!’ (from F. aval), belong to the domain of popular etymology. (Cf. Dr. Chance in N. & Q., s. 7 IV. 82.)]
1. The season immediately preceding Lent, devoted in Italy and other Roman Catholic countries to revelry and riotous amusement, Shrove-tide; the festivity of this season. High Carnival: the revelry of the Carnival at its height.
Originally (according to Tommaseo and Bellini) ‘the day preceding the first of Lent’; commonly extended to the last three days or the whole week before Lent; in France it comprises Jeudi gras, Dimanche gras, Lundi gras and Mardi gras, i.e., Thursday before Quinquagesima, Quinquagesima Sunday, Monday, and Shrove Tuesday; in a still wider sense it includes ‘the time of entertainments intervening between ‘Twelfth-day’ (or Boxing Day) and Ash Wednesday’ (Littré).
Mid Lent Carnival (Carnaval de la mi-carême): a festivity held on the middle Thursday of Lent, to celebrate the fact that the first half of that season is at an end.
1549. Thomas, Hist. Italie, 85 a. In theyr Carnoual time (whiche we call shroftide).
1565. Jewel, Repl. Harding, Wks. (1609), 4. The Italians … contrary to the Portuise, call the first weeke in Lent the Carneuale.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, IV. iv. (1658), 61. After a carnivale Lent ever follows.
1646. Evelyn, Diary, Jan. Shrovetide, when all the world repaire to Venice, to see the folly and madnesse of the Carnevall.
1739. Gray, Lett. to West, 16 Nov. This Carnival lasts only from Christmas to Lent; one half of the remaining part of the year is past in remembering the last, the other in expecting the future Carnival.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, Italy, III. 88. The carnival is the season devoted intirely to pleasure, and begins the second holiday after Christmas.
1763. J. Brown, Poetry & Mus., 202. The Carnaval is, in many Circumstances, almost a Transcript of the ancient Saturnalia of Rome.
1817. Byron, Beppo, vi. Of all the places where the Carnival Was most facetious in the days of yore.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, I. 208. Like distracted masks in high carnival.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 April, 7/1. A tragical finale to the gaieties of the Mid-Lenten Carnival…. The Carnival of the Mi-Carême … is the great festival of the Parisian blanchisseuses.
2. fig. Any season or course of feasting, riotous revelry, or indulgence.
1598. Tofte, Alba (1880), 102. The Carnouale of my sweet Loue is past, Now comes the Lent of my long Hate.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. xii. 93. To avoid … freer revellings, carnivals and balls.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VII. xxvii. During that carnival of sporting.
1816. Byron, Siege of Cor., xvi. He saw the lean dogs … Hold o’er the dead their carnival.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind. (1886), 348. It was a carnival of intellect without faith.
3. attrib.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, IV. ii. (1616), 498. For your carniuale concupiscence [cf. Cotgr. Carnavalée].
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 315. Their Carniuall day … is obserued amongst them in the same manner as our Shroue-tuesday with vs in England.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 94, ¶ 2. Both of them were at a Play in a Carnival Evening.
1800. Coleridge, Wallenstein, IV. ii. This is a carnival night.
Hence Carnivalesque a., characteristic, or of the style, of the carnival.
1792. H. Walpole, in Jrnls. & Corr. Miss Berry (1866), I. 289. Your [letter] whets no reply, being merely carnivalesque.
1833. Blackw. Mag., XXXIII. 374. This unique and carnivalesque drama.
1866. Reader, 1 Sept., 760. [The Lord Mayor] in grand carnivalesque pomp.
