The noun is derived from Middle English careine, caroigne, borrowed from Anglo-Norman careine, caroigne, charogne, and Old French charoigne, Northern Old French caˈronië, caroine, caroigne (modern French charogne), probably from Vulgar Latin *carōnia, from Latin caro (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-) + -ia.

The regular modern English form would be *carren, *carron /ˈkæɹən/ (this is found dialectally; see similar kyarn); the intervening /i/ is probably a hypercorrection based on the analogy of words like merlin/merlion.

The adjective is derived from the noun.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈkæ.ɹɪ.ən/
• (America) IPA: /ˈkɛ.ɹi.ən/, /ˈkæɹ.ən/

carrion (uncountable)

1. (uncountable)
   1. Rotting flesh of a dead animal or person.

      Vultures feed on carrion.

      • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, “The Advocate”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC ↗, page 119 ↗:

        [W]hat disordered slippery decks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those battle-fields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies' plaudits?

      • 1859 December 12, Charles Dickens, “The Mortals in the House”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Whiting, […], →OCLC ↗, page 7 ↗, column 2:

        He brought down with him to our haunted house a little cask of salt beef; for, he is always convinced that all salt beef not of his own pickling, is mere carrion, and invariably, when he goes to London, packs a piece in his portmanteau.

      • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter X, in Jacob's Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC ↗; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC ↗, page 123 ↗:

        And the butterflies are flaunting across the rides in the Forest. Perhaps the Purple Emperor is feasting, as Morris says, upon a mass of putrid carrion at the base of an oak tree.

   2. (figurative) Corrupt or horrid matter.
      • 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Courage”, in Society and Solitude. Twelve Chapters, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC ↗, page 247 ↗:

        [T]here are melancholy sceptics with a taste for carrion who batten on the hideous facts in history,—persecutions, inquisitions, St. Bartholomew massacres, devilish lives, […]

      • 1879, James Anthony Froude, chapter XXIII, in Cæsar: A Sketch, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC ↗, footnote 2, page 402 ↗, column 1:

        Roman fashionable society hated Cæsar, and any carrion was welcome to them which would taint his reputation.

   3. (obsolete, figurative) Filth, garbage.
   4. (obsolete, figurative, derogatory) The flesh of a living human body; also (Christianity), sinful human nature.
2. (countable, obsolete)
   1. A dead body; a carcass, a corpse.
      • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC ↗, page 166 ↗:

        [T]hey looked like anatomies of death, they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves; they did eate the dead carrions, happy where they could finde them, yea, and one another soone after, insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves; […]

   2. (figurative) An animal which is in poor condition or worthless; also, an animal which is a pest or vermin.
      • 1550, John Heywood, “The Woodcock and the Daw”, in An Hundred Epigrammes. […], London: […] Thomas Berthelet, →OCLC ↗, signature [Cvi], verso ↗:

        [L]ords will by their wils / Rather haue one wodcock, than a thouſand dawſe. / Wodcocks ar meate, daws ar carren, wey this clauſe. / In dede ſir (ſaid the daw) I muſt needes agree, / Lords loue to eate you, and not to eate mee.

      • 1580, Thomas Tusser, “Septembers Husbandrie”, in Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie: […], London: […] Henrie Denham [beeing the assigne of William Seres] […], →OCLC ↗, stanza 6, folio 15, verso ↗:

        Let carren and barren, be ſhifted awaie, / for beſt is the beſt, whatſoeuer ye paie.

        Referring to cattle which are in poor condition and barren.

      • 1634, William Wood, “Of the Birds and Fowles both of Land and Water”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC ↗, 1st part, page 26 ↗:

        Having ſhevved you the moſt deſireable, uſefull, and beneficiall creatures, vvith the moſt offenſive carrions that belong to our VVilderneſſe, it remaines in the next place, to ſhevv you ſuch kinds of Fovvle as the Countrey affoords: […]

   3. (figurative, derogatory) A contemptible or worthless person.

      Synonyms: Thesaurus:worthless person

      • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i], page 115 ↗, column 1:

        And vvhat other Oath, / Then Honeſty to Honeſty ingag'd, / That this ſhall be, or vve vvill fall for it. / Svveare Prieſts and Covvards, and men Cautelous / Old feeble Carrions, and ſuch ſuffering Soules / That vvelcome vvrongs: […]

      • 1661 September 25 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “September 15th, 1661 (Lord's Day)”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume II, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC ↗, page 97 ↗:

        […] Pegg Kite, […] will be, I doubt, a troublesome carrion to us executors; but if she will not be ruled, I shall fling up my executorship.

• French: charogne
• German: Aas, Kadaver
• Italian: carogna
• Portuguese: carniça
• Russian: па́даль
• Spanish: carroña

carrion

1. (chiefly, derogatory) Pertaining to, or made up of, rotting flesh.
   • c. 1522 (date written), Thomas More, “A Treatyce (Vnfynyshed) vppon These Wordes of Holye Scrypture, Memorare Nouissima, & Ineternum non Peccabis, Remember the Last Thynges, and Thou shalt Neuer Synne. […]. Of Glotony.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […], London: […] Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC ↗, column 101 ↗:

     Theſe glotõs daily kil thẽſelf their own handes, ⁊ no man findeth fault, but carieth his cariẽ corſe into yͤ quere, and wͭ much ſolẽne ſeruice, burieth yͤ body boldly at the hie alter, whẽ thei haue at their life (as thapoſtle ſaith) made theyr belly their god, ⁊ liked to know none other: […]

     These gluttons daily kill themselves [with] their own hands, and no man finds fault, but carries his carrion [indicated as carien] corse into the choir [of the church], and with much solemn service, buries the body boldly at the high altar, when they have at their life (as the apostle says) made their belly their god, and liked to know none other: […]

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i], signatures [G4], verso – H, recto ↗:

     You'l aske me vvhy I rather chooſe to haue / A vveight of carrion fleſh, then to receiue / Three thouſand Ducats?

2. (figurative)
   1. Disgusting, horrid, rotten.

      Synonyms: vile, Thesaurus:despicable

      • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, “The Town-Ho’s Story”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC ↗, pages 284–285 ↗:

        'But as for you, ye carrion rogues,' turning to the three men in the rigging—'for you, I mean to mince ye up for the try-pots;' and, seizing a rope, he applied it with all his might to the backs of the two traitors, till they yelled no more, but lifelessly hung their heads sideways, as the two crucified thieves are drawn.

   2. (derogatory) Of the living human body, the soul, etc.: fleshly, mortal, sinful.
      • c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i], signature H, recto ↗:

        Shees bitter to her country, heare me Paris, / For euery falſe drop in her bavvdy veines, / A Grecians life hath ſunke: for euery ſcruple / Of her contaminated carrion vvaight, / A Troyan hath beene ſlaine.

3. (obsolete)
   1. Very thin; emaciated, skeletonlike.

      Synonyms: Thesaurus:scrawny

   2. Of or pertaining to death.
      • c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene vii], signature [D4], recto ↗:

        O hell! vvhat haue vve heere, a carrion death? / VVithin vvhoſe empty eye there is a vvritten ſcroule, / Ile reade the vvriting.

        Referring to a skull.

1. Surname.