Etymologically
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incarnation

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 14:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˌɪŋ.kɑːˈneɪ.ʃən/[1]
  • US: /ˌɪŋ.kɑɹˈneɪ.ʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English incarnacioun, also incarnacion,[2][3] borrowed from Old French incarnacion,[4][5][6] in Anglo-Norman incarnaciun, recorded from 1113–19,[5][7] from Late Latin incarnātiō (“the act of being made flesh”),[4][5][8][9] a word of the Church writers (Hilary, Jerome, Ambrose),[5][4] the noun of action from incarnō (“to make flesh; to be made flesh”),[4][10][8] formed from in- (“in”) and carō (“flesh”), genitive carnis.[4][10][11] The Latin noun also gave encarnación and incarnazione.[4] Old English had glossed the idea as inflæscnes and inlichomung.[4] The word is related to incarnate and carnal.[10][11][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The taking of human flesh by God in Christ: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle,[5] about 1300 in Etymonline and Barnhart.[4][11] The Middle English Dictionary also records its use for the Christian era, as in the year of the incarnation.[2]

Semantic evolution

The theological sense was the earliest and is still the main one.[5][10] From before 1475 incarnation was a light pink or a pigment of that colour, now archaic,[5][9][10] and since about 1543 the growth of new flesh in a healing wound,[5][9] which Johnson (1755) gave as "the state of breeding flesh".[12] From 1646 the word was used of any embodiment in flesh,[5] and since the 1740s concretely, for a body or form in which a spirit or deity lives.[5][13][4] In the 19th century it came to mean a person or thing that embodies a quality, the incarnation of something (1833; of a thing, 1821 in Shelley),[5] and it is also used for one of the successive forms or versions of something.[14][9]

Timeline

  • 1297 – the Incarnation of Christ.[5]
  • before 1475 – light pink, flesh colour (now archaic).[5][9]
  • c. 1543 – the growth of new flesh in a wound.[5]
  • 1615 – figuratively, embodiment in a definite form.[5]
  • 1646 – embodiment in flesh in general.[5]
  • 1742 – a body or form in which a spirit is incarnated.[13][4]
  • 1821 – a thing that typifies a quality, in Shelley.[5]
  • 1833 – a person who embodies a quality.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The embodiment of a deity or spirit in an earthly, especially human, form.[14][15][6]
  2. the Incarnation: in Christian theology, the union of God and humanity in Jesus.[14][15][9]
  3. A person or thing that typifies a quality or idea: He was the incarnation of patience.[14][15][5]
  4. One of a series of forms or states; a version: In an earlier incarnation the theatre was a warehouse.[14][9]
  5. The act of incarnating, or the state of being incarnate.[14][15]
  6. (rare) The growth of new flesh in a healing wound.[9][5][12]
  7. (archaic) Flesh colour; a light rosy pink.[9][5]

Word family

  • incarnational
  • carnal
  • incarnate
  • reincarnate
  • reincarnation
  • carnation
  • carnage
  • carnivore

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b 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 Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins