The charnel in charnel house traces back to a Late Latin word for "flesh or meat," caro.

Caro also gave us all sorts of words about physical bodies, like carnivore, carrion, carnage, carnal, carnation, reincarnation, and  __carn___ (meaning "made flesh: having a bodily form"). Can you recall that last one?

Now, it might bug you to notice that all those other words from caro have the letters C-A-R in them, not C-H-A-R as in charnel. For that, we have to blame the fact that charnel traveled through Old French on its way from Latin to English.

And then it might further bug you that we pronounce charnel with that hard CH sound at the beginning (like cheese and cherry), instead of the soft SH sound like most other obviously French-derived English words (like chef and chaperone). For that, we have to blame the fact that charnel entered English from French way, way back, in the same era as other hard-CH French words like chamber, champion, and charity, which was long before the era of soft-SH French words like chef, chaperone, champagne, chandelier, and char____n ("someone who talks quickly and smoothly as they pretend to be knowledgeable, so that they can trick people or sell to them"). Can you recall that word?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)  

A charnel, or somewhat redundantly, a charnel house, is a building where dead human bodies are kept, often in a big pile. 

So in a figurative sense, a charnel house is a place or a situation where there is a terrible, large-scale loss of life, as if bodies are piling up.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the countable kind: "The world is a charnel house of oppression and cruelty (Slate)."

Other forms: 

The plural is "charnel houses."

If you prefer, you can use a hyphen between the words instead of a space: "charnel-house."

The hyphenation "charnel-house" works great as an adjective: "that charnel-house plotline," "this charnel-house existence."

how to use it:

"Charnel house" is a semi-common phrase with a tone that's dark and formal.

Pick it when you want to compare some time, place, situation, or story to a building full of human remains.

For example, you might refer to some story, novel, show, or movie as a charnel house if it tends to kill off lots of its characters. Or you might say that a particular country was a charnel house in a particular war, or that life itself is a charnel house. 

(If the phrase "charnel house" is getting you down, I feel you. Let's think also of happy terms, like anima mundi, the soul of the world; raison d'etre, a reason for being; Vorfreude, the feeling of happy anticipation as you look forward to something; and "petrichor," that wonderful smell that rises up from the ground during and after a rainfall.)

examples:

"The treaty would insure that Europe, a charnel house for the first half of the twentieth century, would in the second half become a place of guaranteed peace." 
  — John Lanchester, The New Yorker, 17 October 2016

"Mrs. Crummles trod the pavement as if she were going to immediate execution with an animating consciousness of innocence... 'We have but a shoulder of mutton with onion sauce,’ said Mrs. Crummles, in the same charnel-house voice; ‘but such as our dinner is, we beg you to partake of it.'"
  — Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, 1839

has this page helped you understand "charnel house"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the figurative meaning of "charnel house" without saying "morgue" or "graveyard."

try it out:

Melanie McFarland wrote:

"What constitutes a good TV death? There are many correct answers to that question along with scores of wrong ones. Television is a veritable charnel house containing the bones of characters who died unnecessary or stupid deaths."

Could you explain why McFarland says TV is a charnel house? And could you give an example of a show that either illustrates her point (a show with "unnecessary or stupid deaths") or contradicts her point (one with meaningful deaths)?

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is Slide Into The Title: Elton John Edition! 

Have you noticed how pop songs tend to use rhyme, rhythm, and semantics to guide you straight into singing the correct title, even if you’ve never heard it before? I love that, how the title clicks into place. See if you can slide into a complete title, given a snippet of lyrics.

You can check out some examples here.

Try this one today:

"Tell me how you know now
The ways and means of getting in,
Underneath my skin?
Oh, you were always my original ___."

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. A near opposite of a CHARNEL HOUSE, in the figurative sense, is

A. FEAST or BANQUET.
B. DISCO or DANCE HALL.
C. NURSERY or SANCTUARY.

2. It won't surprise you to see the phrase "charnel house" in a story by _____.

A. Edgar Allan Poe, known for tales of spine-tingling horror
B. Jhumpa Lahiri, known for tales of tenderness and cultural tension
C. Chinua Achebe, known for tales of gender roles and human resilience

Answers to the review questions: 1. C 2. A From the game: That song is "Original Sin."

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.