carrion

Definition

Rotting flesh of a dead animal or person.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English careine, caroigne (“dead body, corpse; animal carcass; reanimated corpse; gangrenous or rotting body or flesh; mortal nature; (derogatory) living body; (figurative) disgusting or worthless thing”), 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 probably a hypercorrection based on the analogy of words like merlin/merlion. The adjective is derived from the noun.

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?"

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