incarnadine
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪnˈkɑːnədiːn/
ipa: /-daɪn/
ipa: /-dɪn/
ipa: /ɪnˈkɑɹnəˌdiːn/
Forms: form: incarnadines
form: incarnadining
form: incarnadined
form: incarnadined
Etymology: The adjective is derived from French incarnadin, incarnadine, from Italian incarnadino, a variant of incarnatino (“carnation; flesh colour”), from incarnato (“embodied, incarnate”) + -ino (suffix forming adjectives denoting composition, colour, or other qualities). Incarnato is derived from Ecclesiastical Latin and Late Latin incarnātus (“having been made incarnate”), the perfect passive participle of incarnō (“to become or make incarnate; to make into flesh”), from in- (suffix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + Latin carō (“flesh, meat; body”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).
The noun and verb are derived from the adjective.
Adjective senses 2 and 3 (“of the blood-red colour of raw flesh; (figurative) bloostained, bloody”) and noun sense 2 (“blood-red colour of raw flesh”) are due to William Shakespeare’s use of the word as a verb in Macbeth (c. 1606): see the quotation below.
Senses: examples: text: [T]he clouds, till that time thick in the sky, broke away from the upper heaven, and allowed the noonday sun to pour down through the lantern upon her, irradiating her with a warm light that was incarnadined by her pink doublet and hose, and reflected in upon her face.
ref: 1880–1881, Thomas Hardy, chapter VII, in A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the De Stancys. A Story of To-day. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], published 1881, →OCLC, book the second (continued; Dare and Havill), pages 37–38:
qualifier: originally
glosses: To make flesh-coloured.
examples: text: Will all great Neptunes ocean waſh this blood / Cleane from my Hand? no: this my Hand will rather / The multitudinous Seas incarnardine, / Making the Greene one, Red.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 137, column 1:
text: Virgins of equall birth, [...] / Shall draw thy picture, and record thy life; / One ſhall enſphere thine eyes, another ſhall / Impearl thy teeth[,] a third thy white and ſmall / Hand ſhall beſnow, a fourth incarnadine / Thy roſie cheek, [...]
ref: 1640 (first publication), Thomas Carew, “Obsequies to the Lady Anne Hay”, in Poems, with a Maske, […], 3rd edition, London: […] H[umphrey] M[oseley] and are to be sold by J[ohn] Martin, […], published 1651, →OCLC, page 91:
text: [H]e dies. / His wife her cheeks rends inconſolable, / His babes are fatherleſs, his blood the glebe / Incarnadines, and where he bleeds and rots / More birds of prey than women haunt the place.
ref: 1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XI.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 283, lines 477–481:
text: And he, who turn'd the waters into blood, / Shall next incarnadine these desart sands, / Whilst dogs and vultures hunt us on the track.
ref: 1807, [Richard Cumberland; James Burges], “Book the First”, in The Exodiad, a Poem, London: […] J. Wright, […], for Lackington, Allen, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 23:
text: [...] Aaron lifting high / The fatal wand, with gaze upturn'd to heaven, / Smote on the flood; and swifter than the lapse / Of falling star, abhorr'd contagion spread / O'er all the current, whose discolour'd train / In utmost amplitude from shore to shore / Still roll'd and inexhaustible roll'd on / A putrid sea of blood; with bitterness / Of scorn and anger Aaron mock'd the griev'd / Magician; then with Moses from my wrath / Withdrew; but left their witcheries behind / Incarnadining every lake and pool, / And long canal; [...]
ref: 1807, Charles Hoyle, “Book IV”, in Exodus; an Epic Poem: In Thirteen Books, London: […] J[ohn] Hatchard, […], →OCLC, page 117, lines 298–309:
text: These were the times when the hardy military virtues might flourish—when Cressy and Agincourt could occur, and the war of the Roses incarnadine the soil of England: [...]
ref: 1838, William Kent, “The Rise and Progress of Commercial Law in English Jurisprudence: An Inaugural Address”, in Inaugural Addresses, Delivered by the Professors of Law, in the University of the City of New-York, at the Opening of the Law School of that Institution. […], New York, N.Y.: E. B. Clayton, […], →OCLC, page 41:
text: And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine
High piping Péhlevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine!
Red Wine!" — the Nightingale cries to the Rose
That yellow Cheek of her's to'incarnadine.
ref: 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2:
text: Repose had again incarnadined her cheeks; and having, at Gabriel's request, arranged her hair this morning as she had worn it years ago on Norcombe Hill, she seemed in his eyes remarkably like the girl of that fascinating dream, which, considering that she was now only three or four-and-twenty, was perhaps not very wonderful
ref: 1874, Thomas Hardy, “A Foggy Night and Morning—Conclusion”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 339:
text: The tangled constellations wane and die, / The witchery of waking dawn entwines / A wreath of primrose glory in the sky / And all the orient incarnadines— [...] [From the New York Sun.]
ref: 1908 December 12, William F. McCormack, “Babylon”, in Alfred Holman, editor, The Argonaut, volume LXIII, number 1638, San Francisco, Calif.: Argonaut Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 104, column 4:
text: The red light flamed on the white sails of a vessel gliding down the channel, bound to a southern port in a land of palms. Beyond her, it smote upon and incarnadined the shining, white, grassless faces of the sand-dunes.
ref: 1917, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “An Evening at Four Winds Point”, in Anne’s House of Dreams, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland & Stewart, published 1920, →OCLC, page 80:
text: When I repeat to Moody my father's tribute such a sudden wine-dark flush incarnadines his face that I am startled.
ref: 1982, Rosamond Lehmann, chapter 4, in The Swan in the Evening, revised edition, London: Hachette Digital, published 2013, →ISBN:
text: "And what of all the men you shot in Malaya and the Indies?" he asked. "What did you think when their blood incarnadined the oceans of Asia? Tell me!"
ref: 2013, Thomas Keneally, chapter 34, in Shame and the Captives, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, published December 2015, →ISBN, page 326:
glosses: To make red, especially blood-coloured or crimson; to redden.
Derived terms: word: incarnadined