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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

carmen.

card for wool/flax; song/music; poem/play; charm; prayer, incantation, ritual/magic formula; oracle;

6 characters2 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˈkar.mɛn]Classical-Latin[ˈkar.men]

  1. song, tune

    declension-3 · neuter · poetic · usually

  2. a composition in verse, a poem; poetry, verse, song

    declension-3 · neuter

  3. poem, poetry (strictly any poem or poetry that can be sung), verse (esp. lyric or epic verse)

    declension-3 · neuter

  4. incantation, charm, spell

    declension-3 · neuter

  5. play, playing (of music)

    declension-3 · neuter
    Carmina Burana

  6. prayer (refers to prayers being composed in verse)

    declension-3 · neuter

  7. formula (refers to the formula of verse found in ancient prayers or magical spells)

    declension-3 · neuter

  8. oracle (infrequent but used to refer to the poetic form in which prophecies were spoken)

    declension-3 · neuter

  9. ritual (involving verse)

    declension-3 · neuter
Where this word comes from

According to Varro its earlier form was *casmen. From Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to speak in a florid, solemn style, attest, witness”). Cognate to Sanskrit शस्मन् (śásman, “hymn, laud, invocation, eulogy, recited verse”). Further cognate to Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hazjan, “to praise”), Old English herian (“to praise, extol, commend”). See Camēna, Casmēna. Compare Latin Casmenae. Sometimes referred to Proto-Italic *kanmen, from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂nmn̥, from *keh₂n- (“to sing”) (whence canō (“to sing, chant”)), as with germen for *genmen.

noun[ˈkar.mɛn]Classical-Latin[ˈkar.men]

  1. card for flax or wool

    declension-3 · neuter
Where this word comes from

From Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-mn̥, from *(s)kers- (“to scratch”) + *-mn̥. Cognate with Lithuanian kar̃šti (“to comb (wool or linen)”), Latvian kā̀rst (“to comb (wool or linen)”), Old High German skerran (“to scratch”), Sanskrit कषति (káṣati, “to scrape, scratch”). Equivalent to car(r)ō (“to card (wool)”) + -men.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.