carl

See also: Carl

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English carl, from Old English carl, a borrowing from Old Norse karl (“man, husband”), from Proto-Germanic *karilaz. Cognate with English churl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɑːl/
• IPA^(key): /kɑɹl̩/

Noun

carl (plural carls)

1. A rude, rustic man; a churl.
   • 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!:

     In Lent noblemen and carls alike had got into the traces and pulled the carts of stone themselves.

2. (Scotland, obsolete) A stingy person; a niggard.

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain.

Alternative forms

• carle

Verb

carl (third-person singular simple present carls, present participle carling, simple past and past participle carled)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To snarl; to talk grumpily or gruffly.
   • Template:RQ:RBrtn AntmyMlncly, New York 2001, p.210:

     […] full of ache, sorrow, and grief, children again, dizzards, they carle many times as they sit, and talk to themselves, they are angry, waspish, displeased with everything […]

Anagrams

• ACLR, CRLA

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Old English

Etymology

From Old Norse karl (Swedish karl (“man”)), from Proto-Germanic *karlaz (“man, male”). Cognate with Old High German karl, karal and related to Old English ċeorl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɑrl/, [kɑrˠl]

Noun

carl m

1. a freeman, a man of middle rank or social class (in Norse and Anglo-Saxon society)
2. (by extension) a man
3. (by extension, in compounds) a male

   carlcatt ― he-cat, a male cat

   carlfugol ― a male bird, cock