charnel house

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical: a building, chamber, or vault in which human bodies or bones are deposited

   The excavators found an old charnel house beneath the ruined chapel.

2. 2
   noun

   a place containing many dead bodies or strongly associated with death and slaughter

   After the massacre, the abandoned hall had become a charnel house.

A compound of charnel and house. Charnel entered Middle English through Anglo-French carnel or charnel, probably from Medieval Latin carnarium, 'place for flesh or bones,' ultimately from Latin caro, carnis, 'flesh.' The open spelling is standard today; charnel-house is a long-attested historical spelling.

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