charnel

English

A charnel in Austria.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): [tʃɑːɹnəl]
• (UK) IPA^(key): [tʃɑːnəl]

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)nəl

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French charnel, from Late Latin carnāle (“graveyard”), from Latin carnālis, or possibly an alteration of Anglo-Norman charner, from Medieval Latin carnārium (“charnel”).

Noun

charnel (plural charnels)

1. A chapel attached to a mortuary.
2. A repository for dead bodies.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXI, page 50:

     When Lazarus left his charnel-cave,
     ⁠And home to Mary’s house return’d,
     ⁠Was this demanded—if he yearn’d
     To hear her weeping by his grave?

Derived terms

• charnel house

Adjective

charnel (comparative more charnel, superlative most charnel)

1. Of or relating to a charnel, deathlike, sepulchral.
   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:

     He murmured to himself with dull despair,
     Here Faith died, poisoned by this charnel air.

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “charnel”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Etymology 2

From Old French charnel, from Latin cardinālis (“relating to a hinge”); related to French charnière.

Noun

charnel (plural charnels)

1. (historical) Part of a helm, now usually identified as the hinge (near the neck) by which the helm was secured to the breastplate.
   • 1836, George Payne Rainsford James, Darnley, Or the Field of the Cloth of Gold, page 134:

     The knight did as he was desired, and broke his spear twice on the very charnel of his helmet. It being now Sir William Cecil's turn, each knight charged his spear directly towards the other's head, and galloping on, both lances […]

   • 1836, Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, page 401:

     1 Are these the charnels, or pinnacles of helmets? See Meyrick, […]

   • 2010, Noel Fallows, Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia, Boydell Press, →ISBN:

     [page 78:] […] knight being struck on the charnel, a device for attaching the helm to the breastplate […] [page 497:] Most of the knights at this passage of arms were wearing sallets with bevors or armets with wrappers. Here we have a rare exception, since reference to the charnel indicates that Joan de Camós is wearing a helm. Given the effect of this particular spear stroke, it can be inferred that he was struck high on the charnel, near the neck, which would have made him choke or gag.

Usage notes

• In the 1800s, some antiquarians initially identified the charnel or charnell as the crest or pinnacle of a helm; the 1933 OED defines it as the hinge by which the visor and bevor move. (Compare manifer and tapul, where the identification has also evolved.)

See also

• flaon

References

• 1842, S.R. Meyrick, A Critical Inquiry Into Antient Armour, as it Existed in Europe, Particularly in Great Britain, from the Norman Conquest to the Reign of King Charles II: Ill. by a Series of Illuminated Engravings : with a Glossary of Military Terms of the Middle Ages, page 159:

  […] with the vizors and bevors of their helmets closed; the tops of the helmets rise to pinnacles, called charnels […]

• 1897, The American Encyclopaedic Dictionary, page 833:

  char-nel (2), †char-nell, s. [Fr. charnière.] 1. A hinge. 2. The crest of a helmet. (Halliwell.) "The charnel of his helmet."

• 2021 November 5, Charles John ffoulkes, The armourer and his craft from the XIth to the XVIth century, Good Press:

  Charnel, O.E. the bolt that fixed the tilting-helm to the breastplate. [...] Cimier, the crest on the helm.

Anagrams

• larchen

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French charnel, from Old French charnel, inherited from Latin carnālis. Also analysable as a derivative of Old French charn (→ Modern French chair) + -el.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃaʁ.nɛl/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

charnel (feminine charnelle, masculine plural charnels, feminine plural charnelles)

1. carnal (relating to the physical and especially sexual appetites)

Derived terms

• charnellement

Further reading

• “charnel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

Old French charnel from Latin carnalis.

Adjective

charnel m (feminine singular charnelle, masculine plural charnels, feminine plural charnelles)

1. carnal (relating to flesh)
2. carnal; corporal; bodily
3. carnal (relating to the physical and especially sexual appetites)

Descendants

• French: charnel

References

• charnel on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (charnel, supplement)

Old French

Etymology

From Latin carnālis.

Adjective

charnel m (oblique and nominative feminine singular charnel)

1. carnal (relating to the physical and especially sexual appetites)

Declension

Declension of charnel

Number	Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	Subject	charnex	charnel	charnel
	Oblique	charnel	charnel	charnel
Plural	Subject	charnel	charnex	charnel
	Oblique	charnex	charnex	charnel

Descendants

• Middle French: charnel
  • English: charnel
  • French: charnel

Spanish

Noun

charnel m (plural charneles)

1. (Nicaragua) fragment from a bullet