English → Latin
“carve” in Latin
scalpōto scratch (with the nails); to carve or engravesculpōto carve, chisel (in stone, metal, or wood); to fashion by sculpting, sculptīnsculpōto carve in or upon; to engravescrībōto writeīnscrībōto write in or upon something, inscribe; furnish with an inscription, give a title to a book; to ascribe, assign, attribexsculpōto dig out or carve out; to elicit or extort; to erase
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
carve
coelare (from κοῖλος: to work figures in relief on metals, especially silver, ivory, etc; also m wood, Verg. Freund writes caelare): scalpare: sculpere (the former of work but little raised, like ξέειν: the latter like γλύφειν, of works in half or whole relief. So Müller, Archaeol, 108): insculpere: scribere: inscribere (of cutting Inscript.). To carve anything in gold, aliquid auro or in auro coelare: to carve in stone, aliquid e saxo sculpere or exsculpere: to carve in marble, to carve statues in marble, scalpere marmora (Cic.): to carve flowers, scalpere flores (Vitr.). To carve anything on a tree or wood, aliquid in robore insculpere.
To carve meat, secare: scindere (a whole animal): in frusta excutere (of dividing into small portions what had been partially carved, Sen.): carpere (of dividing into portions with the fingers, Petronius).
To carve out a way or passage with one’s sword, ferro sibi viam facere.
Apportion or arrange arbitrarily for one’s self aliquid sibi arripere: *aliquas res, prout libet (or ad arbitrium suum, ad libidinem. etc.) describere ac disponere: to carve secundum artem, certis ductibus circumferre manum eruditam (Sen.): to carve well, decenter secare aliquid (e.g., altilia. Sen.).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for carve?
- The usual Latin words for “carve” are scalpō, sculpō, īnsculpō; also scrībō, īnscrībō, exsculpō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.