carnival

• carnaval (obsolete)

From Middle French carnaval, from Italian carnevale, possibly from the Latin phrase carnem levāmen (“meat dismissal”). Other scholars suggest Latin carnuālia (“meat-based country feast”) or carrus nāvālis (“boat wagon; float”) instead.^[1] Doublet of carnaval.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːnɪvəl/, [ˈkɑːnɪvl̩]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑɹnɪvəl/, [ˈkɑɹnɪvl̩]; /kɑɹnəˈvɑl/ (referring to pre-Lenten festivals in various Romance-speaking countries)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkaːnɪvəl/, [ˈkaːnɪvl̩]

carnival (plural carnivals)

1. Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.

   Carnival of Brazil

   Venice Carnival

2. A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

3. (US) A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.

   We all got to ride the merry-go-round when they brought their carnival to town.

   When the carnival came to town, every one wanted some cotton candy.

4. (sociology) A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
   • 2010, Gulnara Karimova, “Jackass, South Park, and 'Everyday' Culture”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 33, page 37:

     The social environment contains the ambiguous traces of carnival: it resists the ideology of capitalism and, at the same time, reproduces the capitalist social order.

5. (figurative) A gaudily chaotic situation.

   a carnival of idiocy

• → Japanese: カーニバル (kānibaru)

carnival (third-person singular simple present carnivals, present participle carnivalling or carnivaling, simple past and past participle carnivalled or carnivaled)

1. (informal, rare) To participate in a carnival.
2. (literary) To move about playfully or wildly.
   • 1870 July, “Life in the Mexican Capital”, in The Old Guard, volume VIII, number VII, [New York, N.Y.]: [C. Chauncey Burr & Co.], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 507:

     The spot is a marvel of beauty and taste; and here, where dust and sun carnivaled for so many years, thousands of every class congregate to listen each evening to music discoursed for the amusement of oi polloi.

   • 1983, Alan Stratton, The Hunters, London, Sydney, N.S.W.: Futura, →ISBN, page 161:

     Sitting in the Chevy, Saturday night on Main Street carnivaling around her, she told herself that she understood, that Ross had made a mistake, had pre-arranged this celebration for tonight and thought that his date with her was tomorrow.

   • 2007, Jonny Glynn, The Seven Days of Peter Crumb, New York, N.Y.,  […]: Harper Perennial, →ISBN, page 210:

     A sudden bright white flash exploded before me. A kaleidoscope of silver lines drawn in rapid succession carnivalled in a blizzard of raging energy.

• “carnival, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
•   carnival on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   Mardi Gras on Wikipedia.Wikipedia