Carina

Carina is the Keel of the ship Argo Navis. The keel is a ship's backbone, the foundation beam that supports the entire ship. Its tapered ends help the ship glide through water.

Latin Carina, 'shell of a nut', 'keel of a ship', is related to the word careen, to cause (a ship) to turn on its side, 'to expose a ship's keel', cognate with Greek karuon, karua, 'nut', and probably also with Old Indian karakah, 'coconut; water vessel made from coconut', related to Carya, karye-, and the first element in gillyflower. Karyo- is the cell nucleus: karyogamy is the coming together and fusing of cell nuclei, as in fertilization. Synkaryon is the nucleus of a fertilized egg immediately after the male and female nuclei have fused. The caryopsis is a dry, one-seeded fruit in which the wall of the seed becomes fused to the carpel wall during its development, typical of members of the grass family including the cereals; wheat, rice, and corn. Karyokinesis (also called mitosis) is the process in cell division by which the nucleus divides and normally resulting in two new nuclei, each of which contains a complete copy of the parental chromosomes.

The keel is the lowest longitudinal timber of a ship. Keel is used to refer to flat-bottomed boats.

"The idea of a 'nut' as a metaphor for a 'boat' is a fairly obvious one (shell is similarly used for a 'rowing boat'), and the Latin word came to be used for a 'ship's keel,' the raised seam of a walnut perhaps suggesting the line of the timber along the ship's bottom" [John Ayto, Dictionary of Word Origins].

To keel over is from the nautical image of a ship turning keel-up. When a boat is floating on its designed waterline, it is said to be floating on an 'even keel'. To careen is to lurch from side to side, often while moving rapidly. Keelhaul is 'to haul under the keel'. Keelson or kelson timbers or metal plates fastened along the top of a ship's keel to strengthen it derived from the root of Old Icelandic kjolr, keel, + swin, swine, used for a timber. Carinatae are defined as all birds having a keeled sternum. The carina or 'keel' referred to a strong median ridge running down the length of the sternum, or breast bone. This is an important area for the attachment of flight muscles. Thus, all flying birds have a pronounced carina. Ratites (Reticulum), all of whom are flightless, lack a strong carina. Thus birds were divided into carinates and ratites. Carina is a term for the fused lower two petals of flowers of many members of the pea family.

Keel, the main timber that extends the length of the bottom of a ship or boat, comes from Old Norse kjolr, keel, related to the the Old Norse word for throat kjolr, from the Indo-European root *gwela-³ 'To swallow'. Derivatives: jowl² (from Middle English cholle 'fold of flesh hanging from the jaw', perhaps related to Old English ceole, Middle English cholle, 'throat', cognate with Irish gob 'beak, mouth'), keel¹ (of ship, from Germanic *keluz). Suffixed zero-grade form *gul-a-; goliard, gular, gules (the color red, indicated on a blazon by vertical lines), gullet (from Latin gula). Extended (expressive) form *glutt-; glut, deglutition (the process of swallowing, from Latin gluttire, glutire, to swallow), glutton (from Latin glutto), Gulliver (from Old French goulafre 'glutton,' a very common surname in Doomsday Book). [Pokorny 2. gel- 365. Watkins] Compare *gwera-⁴ 'To swallow" [Calvert Watkins, American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots].

The words gullet and keel are cognates from *gwela-³ (above). Calvert Calvert Watkins says to compare *gwera-⁴ 'To swallow'. Klein also sees these two roots as blended (under the word gullet). In humans and mammals the Carina is a ridge in the sagittal plane of the trachea where it splits into the two primary bronchi. Derivatives of *gwere-⁴ include: craw (from Middle English crawe, craw, possibly from Old English *craga, throat), scrag (from Middle Dutch craghe, throat, from Germanic *krag-, throat). Suffixed o-grade form *gwor-a-; voracious, -vorous, devour (theses words from Latin vorare, to swallow up). 3. Expressive reduplicated form *gwr-g-; garget, gorge, gurgitation, ingurgitate, regurgitate (these words from Latin gurges, throat, also gulf whirlpool). Suffixed reduplicated form *gwi-gwrosko-; hellebore (from Greek bibroskein, to eat), broncho-, bronchus (from Greek bronkhos, windpipe, throat), bronchi (the major air-carrying vessels of the lungs, is plural of Greek bronkhos). Suffixed form *gwro-mn; theobromine ('food of the gods', is in its largest quantities in the cocoa tree, from Greek broma, food), abrosia (abstaining from food, from Greek brosis, eating). [Pokorny 1. gwer- 474. Watkins] Klein sees gargle, gargoyle, gurgle, jargon, as cognates of *gwere-⁴.

The Goliards [from the keel root *gwela-³] were a group of clergy who wrote bibulous, satirical Latin poetry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They were mainly clerical students at the universities of France, Germany, Italy, and England who protested the growing contradictions within the Church, such as the failure of the crusades and financial abuses, expressing themselves through song, poetry and performance. The word was said by them to originate from a mythical 'Bishop Golias', a medieval Latin form of the name Goliath [2] (Greek kolios).

A Middle English term for a ship's keel was hoole, hull. Hull also has the same meaning as Latin carina, 'shell of a nut', 'keel of a ship', on fancied resemblance of ship keels to open peapods [3]. The word carina is related to karyo-, which is the nucleus of a cell; and the word hull is related to word cell. The cell and its nucleus have different scientific terms, but the semantic sense of the two words is much the same (?) Klein says "for the sense development of Latin carina compare English hull, 'the body of a ship', properly figurative use of hull, 'husk'". Hull comes from the Indo-European root *kel- 'To cover, conceal, save'. Derivatives: Hell, Hel (from Old Norse goddess Hel, the underworld), hall, Valhalla (Val-halla, the hall in which Odin received the souls of slain heroes), coleus (plant in mint family), coleopteran (beetles, weevils, and fireflies), coleoptile, coleorhiza (a protective sheath enclosing the embryonic root of grasses), hold² (in a ship), hull (outer covering of a fruit, seed, or nut; a husk. The frame or body of a ship, tank, airship, or flying boat, from Old English hulu, husk, pod < 'that which covers'), hole, hollow (Old French esclot ‘hollow of the breastbone’), haugh (secret place, small hollow), holster, housing² (an ornamental or protective covering for a saddle), clandestine (from Latin clam, in secret, chlamys, cloak), Calypso¹ (a sea nymph who delayed Odysseus on her island, Ogygia, for seven years), calyptra (caplike structure, such as a root cap), Apocalypse (apo- + kaluptein), eucalyptus (the 'fever tree', from Greek kaluptein, to conceal), helm² (helmet, from Old English helm, protection, covering), William (from German Wille Helm), occult (Latin occultus, from celare), color (from Latin color, color, hue < 'that which covers'), cell (the cell holds within it the whole spectrum of elements - colors), cella, cellar (a ship's keel is below water level, a cellar is below ground level), cellarer, rathskeller (a restaurant or tavern, usually below street level, from Rat council + Keller, cellar, from Latin cella), cilium (eyelash), seel (to stitch closed the eyes of a falcon), supercilious ('above the eyelid,' the haughty lifting of the eyebrow), supercilium, from Latin cilium, lower eyelid), superciliary (relating to the eyebrow), conceal (from con- + celare). [Pokorny 4. kel- 553. Watkins]. It is evident that Hell, in the more general local sense of the word, referred to a place common for all the dead. The German word 'Hell' means 'bright'. Cilium is an eyelash also has the sense of acting like an oar, stiff hairs that operate like rowing a boat with oars. The cilia (plural of cilium) propels the ovum through the fallopian tube. The cilia of the ear are the sound receptors.

A caryatid (from carina, carya, karye-) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means 'maidens of Karyae' a place named for the 'nut-tree sisterhood', an ancient town of Peloponnese. Karyai had a famous temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: "As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides, who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants" [4]. The Greek writer Pausanias describes the worship of a goddess known as Artemis-Caryatis (Karyatis) who is venerated in a sanctuary of walnut trees [5]. The Roman architect Vitruvius stated in his 1st century BC work De architectura that the female figures of the Erechtheion represented the punishment of the women of Caryae (Greek Karyiai), a town near Sparta in Laconia, who were condemned to slavery after betraying Athens by siding with Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars. A caryatid supporting a basket on her head is called a canephora ('basket-bearer'). 

Luba (Bantu people) Caryatid Stool A female figure called a caryatid supports the seat of this carved wooden stool. [Microsoft Encarta]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carina is from Greek karuon 'nut' and related to Sanskrit karakas, 'coconut'. Coconut and Cocoa, comes from Portuguese coco, 'grimace', grinning skull, goblin so called from the monkey-like face at the base of the cocoa nut, and the three holes in coconut. The Territory of Cocos Islands and are also called Keeling Islands. Coconuts are the sole cash crop. Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut, from Hindu khopri and khappar, 'skull', from Old Indian kharparah, 'skull'. In mythology Hell or the underworld was inhabited by ghouls, vague forms, and shadows etc. The alkaloid theobromine (from *gwere-⁴ above), from Greek theo-, god + broma, food, 'food of the gods', is in its largest quantities in the cocoa tree.

In Polynesian mythology the eel's thin round body became like a coconut tree.  

© Anne Wright 2008.