carnival [M16th] Originally a carnival was, in Roman Catholic countries, the period before Lent, a time of public merrymaking and festivities. It comes from medieval Latin carnelevamen ‘Shrovetide’. The base elements of the Latin word are caro, carn- ‘flesh’ and levare ‘to put away’, before the meat-free fasting of Lent began. There is a popular belief that carnival is from carne vale, ‘farewell, meat’, but this is mistaken. Other flesh-related words that come from caro, carn- include carnivorous [L16th], carni plus -vorus ‘devouring’, carnage [E17th], carrion [ME], and incarnation [ME] ‘into flesh’.