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Home Discussion Forum Episodes Charny as "filthy"

 

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Charny as "filthy"
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3:52PM
Jan-13-08


Joanne Johnson

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I haven't had a chance to consult a dictionary, but I recall reading about "charnal houses" which I think were slaughter houses. By extension, figuring such a place would be quite filthy, a word "charny" could be used as describing a very dirty place – a room, a sink or other plumbing fixture, etc.

5:59PM
Jan-13-08


Grant Barrett

San Diego, California

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posts 1062
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Joanne, that's a possibility but I don't know of any other uses of "charny" at all to see if your "charnel" idea fits any better than my "cyarny" idea does.

8:29PM
Jan-13-08


martha

martha

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Joanne, that same thought crossed my mind as soon as I heard the word, too. My understanding of "charnel house," though, is that of a repository for dead bodies. I haven't been able to find a connection between them, though.

Your guess reminds me of the word "shambles," which indeed has its roots in the idea of a bloody slaughterhouse.

It's a great example of how the original, vivid sense of English words can get really watered down over the years, no? Today we'd not think anything of telling a teenager his room is a shambles. But the word's origins are pretty icky!

I'd LOVE to know if something similar's going on with charny, but I've never seen any evidence for it.

11:25AM
Mar-06-08


Shaun Hervey

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I have a large backlog of podcasts, so I come to this topic late. When I heard the word "charny" used to mean dirty – specifically applied to a dirty room – I thought of a charwoman (or char) who cleans rooms. I don't know anything about word morphology, but is it possible that "charny" could mean a mess that is cleaned up by a char?

The other thought I had was that "charny" might be related to "charry", having the quality of charcoal: charny -> charry -> sooty -> dirty. Again, I don't know word morphology, but it's something that came to mind.

4:00PM
Feb-12-10


martha

martha

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posts 802
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Hi, Shaun – That one occurred to me, too, but I believe that "char" is related to "chore."

4:49PM
Feb-12-10


Glenn

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posts 717
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Post edited 5:54PM – Feb-12-10 by Glenn

I think of the word charwoman in that context.

Are there others?

5:53PM
Feb-12-10


EmmettRedd

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posts 215
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At the old Maramec Springs Ironworks, I believe they called the place where they put the charcoal, limestone, and iron ore into the top of the blast furnace as the "charny house". My memory is old and I cannot find verification on the web.

Emmett
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