Carmen

See also: carmen and Cármen

English

Etymology

Spanish Carmen, cognate with English Carmel. Made famous outside Spain by the opera Carmen (1875) by Georges Bizet. The male name is from Italian Carmine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑː(ɹ)mən/

Proper noun

Carmen

1. A female given name from Spanish in the nineteenth century.
   • 1914, Keith Clark, The Spell of Spain, The Page Company, published 1914, page 223:

     Not all of them looked "Spanish", but, no doubt, all of them were Spanish, even the blue-eyed, white, sylph-like creature, dressed in pale blue and white, who looked much more like a Murillo Madonna than like Carmen, but who danced like a Carmen, with a lithe, luring body entirely without stays[...]

   • 1988, Elmore Leonard, Killshot, Arbor House, published 1989, →ISBN, page 145:

     "But your Mom won," Carmen said, "and named you after a movie star. Moms get away with murder. Mine, you probably think, named me after the girl in the opera."
     "Tell you the truth," Wayne said, "I never thought about it."
     "She didn't. She named me after Guy Lombardo's brother, Carmen Lombardo, he sang with the band.

2. (dated, rare) A male given name from Italian.
3. A surname.
4. A town in Oklahoma.
5. An unincorporated community in Idaho.

Derived terms

• Carmen de Patagones
• El Carmen
• San Luis del Carmen

 

Translations

female given name

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 卡門／卡门 (zh) (Kǎmén)

• Esperanto: Karmena
• French: Carmen (fr) f
• Greek: Κάρμεν (el) f (Kármen)
• Japanese: カルメン (Karumen)
• Marathi: कार्मेन f (kārmen)
• Russian: Кармен (ru) (Karmen)

Anagrams

• -mancer, Camren, McNear

Cebuano

Etymology

From Spanish Carmen.

Proper noun

Carmen

1. A municipality of Cebu, Philippines
2. a female given name from Spanish

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Carmen.

Dutch

Etymology

Ultimately from Spanish Carmen, from Carmelo, ultimately from Hebrew כַּרְמֶל.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑr.mən/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Car‧men

Proper noun

Carmen f

1. a female given name

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaʁ.mɛn/

• Audio

  (file)

Proper noun

Carmen f

1. a female given name from Spanish

German

Proper noun

Carmen

1. a female given name from Spanish

Romanian

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Proper noun

Carmen f (genitive/dative lui Carmen)

1. a female given name from Spanish

Spanish

Etymology

Shortened from María (del) Carmen, an epithet of the Virgin Mary at (Mount) Carmel, by folk etymology associated with Latin and Spanish carmen (“song, poem”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaɾmen/ [ˈkaɾ.mẽn]
• Rhymes: -aɾmen
• Syllabification: Car‧men

Proper noun

Carmen f

1. a female given name transferred from the place name, traditionally popular in Spain
2. the letter C in the Spanish spelling alphabet