carnagione

Forms

carnagione f (plural carnagioni)^[1] The spelling Old Italian charnagione is also found.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin carnātiō, in a form that shows the northern Italian outcome of the Latin suffix.^[3][4][5][6] Devoto–Oli speaks of the adaptation of a northern form with lenition going back to the Late Latin word of the 5th century.^[6][7] The Late Latin noun is recorded in Caelius Aurelianus, where it meant “fleshiness”.^[8][9] Treccani, the GDLI and Tommaseo instead derive the word simply: from Italian carne, and Wiktionary allows both.^{[10][11][9][1]}

The Latin word is formed from carō (“flesh, meat”).^[4][12][13] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic noun meaning “piece of meat” and traces it to a PIE stem Proto-Indo-European *k(e)rH-n- (“piece”), with an Umbrian cognate meaning “part”.^[14][15] The word French carnation, recorded from the 15th century, is an adaptation of the Italian word according to DEI.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine chronicle of Matteo Villani (1348–1363), where the word means the look and colour of a person's skin; the TLIO also records it once for meat as food.^[2] DELI dates it a little later, before 1370, in Donato Velluti's chronicle, with the sense “quality and appearance of human skin, especially the colours of the face”.^[3] Nocentini places the first record before 1315.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The core sense has hardly changed: from the 14th century chronicles the word describes a person's complexion together with height and hair, as in Velluti's portrait of a man “tall, fresh and of fine complexion” (grande della persona, gentilesco, fresco e di bella carnagione).^[11][9] Later writers use it in the same way for a fair or dark face, and Redi describes a princess “of very white complexion” (di carnagione bianchissima).^[11]

From 1550 the word was also used in painting for the rendering of the skin and its colour, and French carnation has had both the sense “complexion” and the artistic sense since the 15th century.^[16] In heraldry di carnagione names the tincture used for human flesh.^[1][17] In Umbria the noun is also the local name of a red or pink compact limestone used in building, named for its colour.^[5][10][6]

Timeline

• 1348–1363 – Matteo Villani's chronicle has the first record, for the colour of the skin.^[2]
• Before 1370 – Donato Velluti uses carnagione for a person's complexion.^[3][11]
• 1550 – The word is used for the painted rendering of human skin.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. complexion: the appearance and colour of a person's skin, especially of the face: una carnagione chiara e liscia.^{[5][6][10][1]}
2. (heraldry, in di carnagione) carnation, the flesh colour.^[1][17]
3. (petrology) A compact red or pink limestone of the Umbrian Apennines, used in building.^[5][6][10]

Related words

• carne
• incarnato
• incarnazione
• Latin carō
• French carnation

Usage notes

Zingarelli separates carnagione, the lasting quality and colour of the skin, from colorito, the colour of the face that may change with a passing state, and also from cera.^[18] A synonym is incarnato.^[18][12][13] The limestone sense is used as an invariable masculine noun.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 772
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
17. ^ a b Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
18. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli