"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 13/02/18 (Carnival Day, Shrove Tuesday, deadpan expression)

Erm, and a Carnival Day has come round again. Today is Carnival Day. In Roman catholic countries, it's the period before Lent, it's a time of public merrrimaking and a great feasting and festivities. It comes from medieval Latin carnelevamen, which meant to put away meat, which is exactly of course what you do when you begin fasting. A lot of people think it's carnevale, so goodbye to meat, that is not quite right, it is to put it away. And there are many other flesh related words which are linked strangely to carnival and you wouldn't always put them together. Carnivorous, because you have got the meat connection, carnage, carnation from the flower's fleshy colour and carrion and incarnation, as well. So lots of bedmates, if you like, in English. But today of course is Shrove Tuesday, as we say, it's Pancake Day and Shrove Tuesday is linked to giving somebody short shrift which is to treat them in a really curt and a very dismissive way. That phrase originally referred to the short time that a condemned criminal was allowed to make penance before he or she was executed. So they would be shriven, absolved of their sins by a priest. It's the day before the start of Lent, it's marked by feasting and celebration, and of course, we mostly call it Pancake Day but other countries celebrate it as Mardi Gras which meant Fat Tuesday. Again, that link to feasting and eating a lot. While we are on pancakes, pancake make-up often used as stage make-up, the very, very heavy make-up that you use. Nothing do with the flat things that we eat today and everything to do with pan and slang for the face. It's because of the round shape, it's where we get deadpan from. If we have a deadpan expression, it's a dead expression on your face. So lots and lots strange links there, sort of a little whirl around pancakes but whatever I hope everyone eats lots and make merry.