Thursday, September 28, 2006

word origin: carnival

The word, 'carnival' comes from the Italian for a festival meaning, "farewell to meat."

6 comments:

egan said...

Farewell to meat? I didn't know this. Damn those vegetarians, they ruin everything.

puerileuwaite said...

Based on the carvival workers that I've encountered, a more realistic translation would be, "farewell to hygiene".

Old Man Crowder said...

HAHAAAHAA!! Puer rocks.

PG: I don't know where you get your info, and far be it for me to question the accuracy of your source, but my understanding is that carnival is comprised of "carne" -- meat or flesh and "vale" (pr: va-leh) -- influence or authority.

Therefore, I suppose it could suggest influential flesh.

You truly are a carnival!

Jay Adkins said...

Carnival is traditionally a two week celebration leading up to Lent. ("Farewell to meat" makes a lot more sense if you look at it that way.) In New Orleans we call it "Mardi Gras",(which is French for "fat tuesday",) which for the traditional Carnival is the finale of the holiday season leading up to Ash Wednesday.

Party Girl said...

Egan: I can't imagine having to give up cow. Especially cow with a side of fries.

P: Ah, Carnies. My mom who fantasizes about me with a hubby and a nice 2.5 tied to me, when I walk through the Midway and all the Carnie workers are completely molesting me with their eyes, and they all have more tattoos than teeth, I ask if one of them will do?

OMC: I get my useless info from various sources, this one was from a Jeopardy! book.

Jay: Put into that context the meaning completely makes sense now.

Jeff C. said...

Maybe that's why you get pogo's at the carnival. It's the last thing you can do to meat; coat it with bread, put it on a stick, deep fry it and sell it to some fat guy who just threw up on the tilt-a-whirl.