encarnación

Forms

encarnación f (plural encarnaciones)^[1] Old Spanish texts also have the Latin spelling incarnación and encarnaçion.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin incarnātiō (“incarnation”), the Church Latin noun.^[3][1] Spanish relates it to the verb encarnar, recorded from Berceo, and DICCA-XV and Wiktionary also analyse it as that verb with -ción.^[4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed from incarnō (“to make flesh; to become incarnate”) with -tiō.^[1] The verb is built from in- and carō (“flesh”), and is a word of Church Latin.^[6][1] In Medieval Latin the noun meant the Incarnation and also the year counted from it.^[7]

The same word is Portuguese encarnação, which Nascentes calls semi-learned, Catalan encarnació, French incarnation and Italian incarnazione.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), in a prayer: prisist encarnación en Santa María madre “you took flesh in holy Mary, mother”.^[2] The Espéculo of Alfonso X (before 1260) is the first manuscript of its own time with the word: desta encarnaçion ffue mandadero el angel graujel “of this incarnation the angel Gabriel was the messenger”.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts the word refers above all to the Incarnation of Christ, and the Liber Regum places the Incarnation in the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus.^[2][11] The 1732 Autoridades names the Mystery of the Incarnation, celebrated as the Annunciation on 25 March, and adds a sense from sculpture: the flesh-coloured paint used on the faces and bodies of figures.^[12] Terreros records both senses in 1786.^[10]

The figurative senses, the representation of an idea by a person and the personification of a doctrine, are in Alemany's dictionary of 1917, beside a surgical sense: the growth of new tissue in a healing wound.^[13] The DLE now lists the act of becoming flesh, the Incarnation, the embodiment of an idea, and the flesh colour in painting and sculpture.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has prisist encarnación.^[2]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum has the spelling incarnacion.^[2]
• Before 1260 – Alfonso X's Espéculo has encarnaçion.^[2]
• 1570 – the date the BDELC gives for the word.^[14][15]
• 1585 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[16]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the religious sense and the sculptors' flesh colour.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from Latin incarnatio.^[17]
• 1917 – Alemany records the figurative senses “embodiment, personification”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or result of becoming flesh (encarnar), of taking on a bodily form.^[3][18]
2. (Christianity, usually capitalised) The Incarnation: the taking of human flesh by the Word of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary.^[3][1]
3. An embodiment or personification of an idea or doctrine: Para muchos, aquel actor era la encarnación del galán clásico.^[3][1]
4. (painting, sculpture) The flesh colour of the bare parts of a figure (encarnado).^[3][18]

Related words

• Encarnación
• encarnar
• carne
• carnación
• Latin incarnātiō

Usage notes

Encarnación is also a woman's given name, shortened from María de la Encarnación, an epithet of the Virgin Mary, and the name of a city in southern Paraguay.^[1] In painting and sculpture encarnación de pulimento is a polished flesh colour and encarnación de paletilla or mate an unpolished one.^[19][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. encarnación
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. encarnación
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 878
5. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. encarnación
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. incarno
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. incarnatio
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. encarnação
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. encarnació
10. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 31
11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. encarnación
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, s.v. encarnación
13. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 651
14. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. carne
15. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. s.v. incarnatio
16. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. encarnación
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 390
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. encarnación
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. encarnación