English

Proper noun

Carmen

1. A female given name borrowed from Spanish in the nineteenth century.
   • 1914 Keith Clark, The Spell of Spain, The Page Company 1914, page 223:

     Not all of them looked "Spanish", but, no doubt, all of them were Spanish, even the blue-eyed, white, sylph-like creature, dressed in pale blue and white, who looked much more like a Murillo Madonna than like Carmen, but who danced like a Carmen, with a lithe, luring body entirely without stays[...]

   • 1988 Elmore Leonard, Killshot, Arbor House 1989, ISBN 1557100411, page 145:

     "But your Mom won," Carmen said, "and named you after a movie star. Moms get away with murder. Mine, you probably think, named me after the girl in the opera."

     "Tell you the truth," Wayne said, "I never thought about it."

     "She didn't. She named me after Guy Lombardo's brother, Carmen Lombardo, he sang with the band.

2. (dated, rare) A male given name.
3. A town in Oklahoma.
4. An unincorporated community in Idaho.

French

Proper noun

Carmen f

1. A female given name of Spanish origin.

German

Proper noun

Carmen

1. A female given name of Spanish origin.

Spanish

Etymology

Shortened from María (del) Carmen, an epithet of the Virgin Mary at (Mount) Carmel, by folk etymology associated with Latin and Spanish carmen ‎(“song, poem”).

Proper noun

Carmen f

1. A female given name, traditionally popular in Spain.
2. The letter C in the Spanish phonetic alphabet

English

Noun

carmen

1. plural of carman

Latin

Etymology

From Old Latin casmen ‎(“song”), believed to be for earlier *cansmen, abstract noun formed from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- ‎(“to sing”). Confer canō ‎(“I sing, chant”), and the suffix -men.

Alternative etymology connects casmen, *cansmen to Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- ‎(“to speak in a florid, solemn style, attest, witness”), relating it to Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 ‎(hazjan, “to praise”), Old English herian ‎(“to praise, extol, commend”). See herry.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkar.men/, [ˈkar.mẽ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkar.men/

Noun

carmen n ‎(genitive carminis); third declension

1. song
2. poem
3. play
4. charm
5. prayer
6. incantation
7. ritual
8. magic
9. card for flax or wool

Inflection

Third declension neuter.

Derived terms

• carminō

Descendants

• English: charm (through Old French)
• French: charme
• Italian: carme
• Portuguese: carme
• Spanish: carmen

References

• carmen in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• carmen in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• CARMEN in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “carmen”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • epic poetry: carmen epicum
    
  • to recite a poem, line with appropriate action: carmen, versum agere
    
  • to read a piece of verse with expression: carmen recitare
    
  • to recite a piece of verse (without gestures): carmen pronuntiare
    
  • a rough poem; an extempore effusion: carmen inconditum
    
  • a choric ode in a tragedy: carmen chori, canticum
    
  • to read prayers for the congregation to repeat: praeire verba (carmen) (Liv. 31. 17)
    
  • (ambiguous) to write poetry with facility: carmina , versus fundere (De Or. 3. 50)
    
• carmen in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• carmen in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Spanish

A carmen in Granada

Noun

carmen m ‎(plural cármenes)

1. A type of house in Granada