carl

See also: Carl

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English carl, from Old English carl, a borrowing from Old Norse karl (“man, husband”), from Proto-Germanic *karilaz. Doublet of ceorl, churl, and karl.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɑːl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɑɹl̩/
• Rhymes: -ɑːl, -ɑɹl̩

Noun

carl (plural carls)

1. A rude, rustic man; a churl.

   Synonyms: hick, hob; see also Thesaurus:country bumpkin

   • 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!:

     In Lent noblemen and carls alike had got into the traces and pulled the carts of stone themselves.

2. (Scotland, obsolete) A stingy person; a niggard.

   Synonyms: skinflint, tightwad; see also Thesaurus:miser

Related terms

• housecarl
• wife-carl

Etymology 2

Uncertain.

Alternative forms

• carle

Verb

carl (third-person singular simple present carls, present participle carling, simple past and past participle carled)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To snarl; to talk grumpily or gruffly.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , New York 2001, p.210:

     […] full of ache, sorrow, and grief, children again, dizzards, they carle many times as they sit, and talk to themselves, they are angry, waspish, displeased with everything […]

See also

• hot carl

Anagrams

• ACLR, CRLA

Old English

Etymology

From Old Norse karl (Danish karl (“man”), Swedish karl (“man”)), from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“man, male”). Cognate with Old High German karl, karal and related to Old English ċeorl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɑrl/, [kɑrˠl]

Noun

carl m

1. a freeman, a man of middle rank or social class (in Norse and Anglo-Saxon society)
2. (by extension) a man
3. (by extension, in compounds) a male

   carlcatt ― he-cat, a male cat

   carlfugol ― a male bird, cock

Derived terms

• carles wǣn (“Ursa Major”)