Etymology: Of this we have two types: α. Middle English carkoys , -cays , -keis (which survived to 16th cent. and even to 1611 as carkeis , -eys ), < Anglo French carcois , carcas (in Central Old French charcos , charcois , charchois , charquois , still dialect in West of France) answering to medieval Latin carcosium (see Du Cange and quot. c1450 at sense 1a); β. 16th cent. carcasse, later carcase, carcass, < 16th cent. French carcasse, < Italian carcassa (Portuguese carcassa, Spanish carcasa) ‘carcass’. The 16–17th cent. forms carkaise, -keise, -kesse, are apparently a mixture of α and β. In modern spelling carcass and carcase are almost equally common: the Dictionaries from Bailey and Johnson downward give carcass alone or by preference. The ulterior etymology presents many difficulties: see Diez, Littré, Scheler, Skeat. It is to be noted however that Old French carcois, medieval Latin carcosium, must apparently be separated from Old French tarquais quiver (representing medieval Greek ταρκάσιον, evidently < Persian (Arabic, Turkish tarkash quiver, arrow-case), although some confusion of the two words may be suspected in modern French carquois (since 15th cent.), Italian carcasso and turcasso, Portuguese carcaz quiver. M. Paul Meyer thinks it must also be separated from the 17th cent. French carquois in sense ‘mast-head’, representing Latin carchēsium. But the actual derivation of carcosium, carcassa, and their mutual relation remains quite uncertain. Diez's suggestion of Latin caro flesh, and Italian casso chest, breast, or cassa case, trunk, is untenable for carcosium, and not very likely for carcassa.

Etymology: < carcass n. 6.Previous versions of the OED give the stress as: ˈcarcass.