incarnate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English incarnat,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin incarnātus (“made flesh”), a past participle common among Christian writers from the 4th century,^[4][5][6] of incarnō (“to make flesh”),^[6][5] from Latin in- (“in, into”) and carō (“flesh”).^[6][7][8] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call it Ecclesiastical Latin and give the deponent incarnor (“to be made flesh”).^[9][10] The noun probably meant at first a piece of flesh, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”).^[5][6] In the sense "flesh-coloured" the adjective corresponds to French incarnat and Italian incarnato,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford derives that sense from French or New Latin.^[10] The OED takes the verb, recorded from 1533, either as a conversion of the adjective or as a borrowing from the participial stem of the same Latin verb;^[4] Barnhart thinks it probably developed from the adjective,^[3] and Etymonline calls it a back-formation from incarnation or a use of the Latin participle.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Clothed in flesh, in bodily form, of a person, soul or spirit: 1395, incarnat, in J. Purvey's Remonstrance.^[4][3] The noun incarnation is older, recorded from about 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began in Christian writing, and the OED notes that it was sometimes construed as a past participle when used of Christ.^[4] From about 1533 it could be used of a quality or abstraction embodied in human form,^[4][5] which led to phrases where it means little more than "utter", such as fiend incarnate.^[2][11] In the same years, in Lord Berners's translation of Guevara, it also meant "enshrined" and "light pink or crimson";^[4] the colour sense, which Hoad dates to the 16th century, now survives only in botany.^[4][9] The verb moved in a similar way from bodily form, in W. Tyndale in 1533, to giving an idea a concrete form, in J. Harington's translation of Ariosto in 1591.^[4][3] A surgical verb, to make flesh grow in a wound, ran from 1543 to 1725 in the OED,^[4] though Etymonline dates it only from the 1670s.^[5] Milton used the verb in Paradise Lost (1667) for making something fleshly or carnal.^[4] The sense of being the living type of a quality is recorded from 1806.^[4] The adjective was misunderstood as well: in Richardson's Clarissa (1748) it is used in the opposite sense, as if its prefix meant "not",^[4] and Johnson (1755) doubted whether Swift understood the word.^[12]

Timeline

• 1395 – adjective, embodied in flesh, incarnat.^[4][3]
• before 1533 – adjective, light pink or crimson.^[4]
• c. 1533 – adjective, of a quality embodied in human form.^[4][5]
• 1533 – verb, to embody in flesh.^[4][2][3]
• 1543 – verb, to make flesh grow in a wound (obsolete by 1725).^[4]
• 1591 – verb, to put into a concrete form.^[4][3]
• 1667 – verb, to make fleshly or carnal (obsolete by 1683).^[4]
• 1748 – adjective, used as if meaning not in the flesh.^[4]
• 1806 – verb, to be the living embodiment of a quality.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. In bodily form, especially human form: a deity incarnate.^[13][2][4]
2. Being the very type of a quality, usually placed after the noun: She was patience incarnate.^[13][2][4]
3. Utter, unspeakable, as in fiend incarnate.^[2][11]
4. (botany) Pink or yellowish-pink; flesh-coloured.^[13][4]

Verb

1. To give a bodily form to; in the passive, to take on a bodily form, especially a human one.^[13][2][4]
2. To give an idea or other abstraction a real or concrete form; to embody: The new constitution incarnates their ideals.^[13][2][4]
3. To be a typical or living example of a quality.^[13][4]
4. (obsolete, 1543–1725) To make flesh grow in a wound; to heal over.^[4][10]
5. (obsolete, 1667–83) To make carnal; to degrade from a spiritual nature.^[4][10]

Word family

• incarnator
• unincarnate
• nonincarnated
• unincarnated

Related words

• carnal
• incarnation
• reincarnate
• reincarnation
• carnage
• carnation
• carnival
• carnivorous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins