carnival

Etymology

From French carnaval, from Italian carnevale, possibly from the Latin phrase carnem levāmen ("meat dismissal"). Other scholars suggest Latin carnuālia ("meat-based country feast") or carrus nāvālis ("boat wagon", "float") instead.

noun

1. Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
   Carnival of Brazil
   Venice Carnival
2. A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
   Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth. 2013-06-07, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
3. (US) A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
   We all got to ride the merry-go-round when they brought their carnival to town.
   When the carnival came to town, every one wanted some cotton candy.
4. (sociology) A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of w:Mikhail Bakhtin.
   The social environment contains the ambiguous traces of carnival: it resists the ideology of capitalism and, at the same time, reproduces the capitalist social order. 2010, Gulnara Karimova, “Jackass, South Park, and 'Everyday' Culture”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 33, page 37