carrion
/ˈkɛɹ.i.ən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.71 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The flesh of a living human body; also (Christianity), sinful human nature.
Derogatory; Obsolete; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Vultures feed on carrion."
- "[W]ee ſee by experience, that ſome [brute beasts] feedeth on yͤ graſſe in yͤ fyelds ſome liues in the ayre eating flyes, others vpon yͤ wormes in carin, others wͭ [with] that they fynd vnder the water."
- "[W]hat disordered slippery decks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those battle-fields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies' plaudits?"
- "He brought down with him to our haunted house a little cask of salt beef; for, he is always convinced that all salt beef not of his own pickling, is mere carrion, and invariably, when he goes to London, packs a piece in his portmanteau."
- "And the butterflies are flaunting across the rides in the Forest. Perhaps the Purple Emperor is feasting, as Morris says, upon a mass of putrid carrion at the base of an oak tree."
- "[T]here are melancholy sceptics with a taste for carrion who batten on the hideous facts in history,—persecutions, inquisitions, St. Bartholomew massacres, devilish lives, […]"
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɛɹ.i.ən/
- British English: /ˈkæɹ.ɪ.ən/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
carrion beetle
carrion-bird
carrion crow
carrion feeder
carrion flower
carrion fly
carrion-hawk
carrion-like