incarnadine

/ɪnˈkɑːnədiːn/

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). By surface analysis, in- + Latin carn- + -ade + -ine. The noun and verb are derived from the adjective. Adjective senses 2 and 3 (“of t

incarnadine means of the pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

INCARNADINE — [Adjective, Noun, Verb] A mutable term: as an adjective or noun, a crimson or blood-red hue, or a pale flesh-pink; as a verb, to stain or dye blood-red. Its etymology descends from French incarnadin, from Italian incarnadino, a variant of incarnatino ("carnation; flesh colour"), from incarnato ("embodied, incarnate") (from Latin incarnātus, from in- ("in") + carō ("flesh")) + the suffix -ino. Unlike "crimson," a heraldic deep red, or "carnation," a domesticated floral pink, incarnadine carries the visceral weight of embodiment. It is the arterial bloom in a porcelain bowl, the blush of shame rising from the collarbone, and the first shocking hue of a wound before the pain arrives; a word that stains the very concept of color with the fact of flesh, reminding us that all red is borrowed from the body.

adj

Of the pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation.“Incarnadine, or Incarnate, that is of a bright Carnation or Fleſh Colour, or of the Colour of a Damask-Roſe.”
Of the blood-red colour of raw flesh; crimson.“Wild and dishevelled, thy luxuriant hair / Falls scattered o'er thy throbbing bosom, fair / As snow incarnadine with morning's ray;— [...]”
Bloodstained, bloody.“His poem, however, is meetly enough entituled—Christ Crucified! But the Rev. William Ellis Wall is worse than [Pontius] Pilate. That "wretch," as this miserable calls the Roman governor, was careful to wash his hands of all guilt in the transaction; but the Rev. William Ellis Wall holds forth triumphantly his two unhallowed and incarnadine maniples of reeking digits, boasting of the infamous achie”
Of a red colour.“Let the wine incarnadine, / In crystal goblets gleaming, / Be the sign, O muse divine, / Of golden moments teeming.”

noun

The pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation.“To dye SILK FLESH colour or INCARNADINE. For every pound of ſilk, put in a quarter of a pound of Braſil; boil it, ſtrain it through a ſieve, and pour freſh cold water upon it.”
The blood-red colour of raw flesh; crimson.“Now thou [the sea] must wear an unmix'd crimson; no / Barbaric blood can reconcile us now / Unto that horrible incarnadine, / But friend or foe will roll in civic slaughter.”
A red colour.“Now sixty-eight years of age she [Elizabeth I] has chosen for the occasion of a dance in her honor a long flowing velvet gown of incarnadine red.”

verb

To make flesh-coloured.“[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.”
To make red, especially blood-coloured or crimson; to redden.“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.”