Carnal means to do with the body and its appetites. Carnal desire, carnal pleasures, carnal knowledge.
It is a formal and usually disapproving word, set against spiritual — carnal appetites are what religious writing warns about. Carnal knowledge is the old legal term for sexual intercourse and still appears in some statutes. It is not used casually. Note that carnal comes from the Latin for flesh, which also gives carnage, carnivore, carnation and carnival — the last meaning the farewell to meat before Lent.
1adjectivecarnalTo do with the body and its appetites.
“The monks tried to rise above carnal desires through fasting and prayer.”
synonyms: fleshly, sensual
carnal is a quality of the body.
Latin carnalis comes from caro, flesh. Carnivore, carnage and carnival all come from the same flesh, and carnival is literally the putting away of meat.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker-
Latin
carnālis — fleshy
Old French
charnel
Middle English
carnal
English, today
carnal
From Middle English carnal, from Old French charnel, from Latin carnālis (“fleshy”), from oblique stem of carō, carnis + -ālis (whence -al).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA