Clipping ofcarnival.
carny (countable anduncountable,pluralcarnies)
- (informal, countable) A person who works in acarnival (often one who usesexaggeratedshowmanship orfraud).
- Synonym:showie(Australia)
2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, inThe Onion AV Club[1]:Bart spies an opportunity to make a quick buck so he channels his innercarny and posits his sinking house as a natural wonder of the world and its inhabitants as freaks, barking to dazzled spectators, “Behold the horrors of the Slanty Shanty! See the twisted creatures that dwell within! Meet Cue-Ball, the man with no hair!”
- (uncountable) Thejargon used by carnival workers.
- (informal, countable) A carnival.
a person who works in a carnival
Of unknown origin.
carny (third-person singular simple presentcarnies,present participlecarnying,simple past and past participlecarnied)
- (dialectal) Tocajole,wheedle, orcoax.
1851,Henry Mayhew,London Labour and the London Poor, published1861:The crossing at St. Martin’s Church was mine fust of all; and when the other lads come to it I didn’t take no heed of ’em—only for that I’d have been a bright boy by now, but theycarnied me over like; for when I tried to turn ’em off they’d say, in acarnying way, ‘Oh, let us stay on,’ so I never took no heed of ’em.
carny
- (dialectal)Flattery.
- “carny”, inOneLook Dictionary Search.
- John Camden Hotten (1873)The Slang Dictionary
FromProto-Slavic*čьrnъ.
carny
- black
- Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “carny”, inSłownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague:ОРЯС РАН,ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag,2008
- Starosta, Manfred (1999) “carny”, inDolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
