reincarnation

Etymology

It is formed from English re- + incarnation.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED compares the earlier adjective and the later verb reincarnate.^[2] Incarnation is from French incarnation, from Late Latin incarnātiō, from incarnō (“to make flesh”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Renewed incarnation, the rebirth of a soul in a new body: 1845, in the Biblical Repertory;^[2][6] the sense of a fresh embodiment of a person is recorded the same year, in N. P. Willis.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to 1829, for the fact of being embodied anew.^[3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1855–1860.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word came in as a term for the belief in metempsychosis, that the soul is reborn in a new body after death.^[2][6][9] From 1845 it also meant the person or animal in whom a soul is thought to be reborn,^[2][8] a sense Etymonline dates to 1854.^[3] From 1897 it was extended to anything that returns in another form or guise, a revival or reinvention.^[2][8][9]

Timeline

• 1845 – rebirth of a soul in a new body; also a fresh embodiment of a person.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to 1829.^[3]
• 1897 – a revival or return in another form.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rebirth of a soul in a new body after death.^[9][6][2]
2. The belief that souls are reborn in this way, as in metempsychosis or transmigration: Several religions teach reincarnation.^[9][6]
3. A person or animal in whom a soul is believed to have been reborn; a fresh embodiment of someone.^[6][2]
4. A new version or form of something: The old mill's latest reincarnation is a hotel.^[9][6][2]

Word family

• reincarnationist

Related words

• carnal
• incarnation
• reincarnate
• incarnate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins