The adjective is derived from French incarnadin, incarnadine, from Italian incarnadino, a variant of incarnatino (“carnation; flesh colour”), from incarnato (“embodied, incarnate”) + -ino (suffix forming adjectives denoting composition, colour, or other qualities). Incarnato is derived from Ecclesiastical Latin and Late Latin incarnātus (“having been made incarnate”), the perfect passive participle of incarnō (“to become or make incarnate; to make into flesh”), from in- (suffix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + Latin carō (“flesh, meat; body”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). By surface analysis, in- + Latin carn- + -ade + -ine. The noun and verb are derived from the adjective. Adjective senses 2 and 3 (“of the blood-red colour of raw flesh; (figurative) bloostained, bloody”) and noun sense 2 (“blood-red colour of raw flesh”) are due to William Shakespeare’s use of the word as a verb in Macbeth (c. 1606): see the quotation below.
1
Archaic, Literary Of the pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation.
Incarnadine, or Incarnate, that is of a bright Carnation or Fleſh Colour, or of the Colour of a Damask-Roſe.[1706, Edward Phillips, compiler, J[ohn] K[ersey the younger], “Incarnadine, or Incarnate”, in The New World of Words: Or, Universal English Dictionary. […], 6th edition, London: […] J. Phillips, […]; N. Rhodes, […]; and J. Taylor, […], →OCLC:
2
Archaic, Literary Of the blood-red colour of raw flesh; crimson.
Wild and dishevelled, thy luxuriant hair / Falls scattered o'er thy throbbing bosom, fair / As snow incarnadine with morning's ray;— [...]1840 May, James A. Morris, “Sonnet.—No. III. La Madalena. By Guido.”, in [Edward Smallwood], editor, The Psyche. A Magazine of Belles Lettres, the Drama, Poetry, Music, and the Fine Arts, volume IV, London: E[dward] Smallwood, […], →OCLC, page 224:
The bandages on his hands – cerise and incarnadine, opalescent and viridian – were grotesqueries that only emphasised his stature.2010, Stephen [Reeder] Donaldson, Against All Things Ending, London: Gollancz, →ISBN:
His poem, however, is meetly enough entituled—Christ Crucified! But the Rev. William Ellis Wall is worse than [Pontius] Pilate. That "wretch," as this miserable calls the Roman governor, was careful to wash his hands of all guilt in the transaction; but the Rev. William Ellis Wall holds forth triumphantly his two unhallowed and incarnadine maniples of reeking digits, boasting of the infamous achievement in a most egregious preface.1833 December, “The Poets of the Day. Batch the Third.”, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume VIII, number XLVIII, London: James Fraser […], →OCLC, page 658, column 2:
"Basically I am a very good person." This from the latest serial killer–destined for the chair, they say–who, with incarnadine axe, recently dispatched half a dozen registered nurses in Texas.1992 October 16, Donna Tartt, chapter 6, in The Secret History (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published October 2002, →ISBN, page 257:
Let the wine incarnadine, / In crystal goblets gleaming, / Be the sign, O muse divine, / Of golden moments teeming.1908 May, “Book XV: In College Days”, in Oscar Leslie Boose, editor, The Michiganensian: A Year Book for 1908, volume XII, number 1, [Ann Arbor, Mich.]: Senior classes of the University of Michigan, →OCLC, page XV-10:
Green orchards with ripe fruit incarnadine, / Each several member autumn-canopied / So thickly as to bend beneath its freight, [...]1931, E[ric] K[ent] Ellis, The Call of Abraham: The Seatonian Prize Poem for 1931, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, page 2:
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The chaplain glanced at the bridge table that served as his desk and saw only the abominable orange-red, pear-shaped, plum tomato he had obtained that same morning from Colonel Cathcart, still lying on its side where he had forgotten it like an indestructible and incarnadine symbol of his own ineptitude.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Chaplain”, in Catch-22, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN, pages 316–317:
I'd like to call attention to one last element of this page. [Charlotte] Salomon's insignia, here incarnadine and enclosed in a circle, like a wax seal, elsewhere floating on the lower left hand side of the page.2014, Ariela Freedman, “Charlotte Salomon, Graphic Artist”, in Sarah Lightman, editor, Graphic Details: Jewish Women’s Confessional Comics in Essays and Interviews, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, part II (Essays), page 43:
incarnadine
noun
Etymology
The adjective is derived from French incarnadin, incarnadine, from Italian incarnadino, a variant of incarnatino (“carnation; flesh colour”), from incarnato (“embodied, incarnate”) + -ino (suffix forming adjectives denoting composition, colour, or other qualities). Incarnato is derived from Ecclesiastical Latin and Late Latin incarnātus (“having been made incarnate”), the perfect passive participle of incarnō (“to become or make incarnate; to make into flesh”), from in- (suffix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + Latin carō (“flesh, meat; body”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). By surface analysis, in- + Latin carn- + -ade + -ine. The noun and verb are derived from the adjective. Adjective senses 2 and 3 (“of the blood-red colour of raw flesh; (figurative) bloostained, bloody”) and noun sense 2 (“blood-red colour of raw flesh”) are due to William Shakespeare’s use of the word as a verb in Macbeth (c. 1606): see the quotation below.
1
Archaic, Literary The pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation.
To dye SILK FLESH colour or INCARNADINE. For every pound of ſilk, put in a quarter of a pound of Braſil; boil it, ſtrain it through a ſieve, and pour freſh cold water upon it.1735, [John Barrow], “[FLESH]”, in Dictionarium Polygraphicum: Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested. […], volume I (A–H), London: […] C[harles] Hitch and C[harles] Davis […], and S[amuel] Austen […], →OCLC:
The woman whom he now saw was a noble, beautiful creature, [...] Beautiful chestnut hair, shaded with veins of gold, a brow which seemed chiselled marble, cheeks which seemed made of roses, a pale incarnadine, a flushed whiteness, an exquisite mouth, whence came a smile like the gleam of sunshine, and a voice like music, a head which Raphael would have given to Mary, on a neck which Jean Goujon would have given to Venus.1994, Victor Hugo, “Lux Facta Est”, in Les Misérables (Wordsworth Classics), volume 1, Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, published 2002, →ISBN, part 3 (Marius), book 6 (The Conjunction of Two Stars), page 470:
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Incarnadine – this remarkable colour of the human skin – how does it arise in painting? [...] Painting what transpires within the soul, it becomes external image: incarnadine, and the colours that surround the head or the human figure.2009, Elisabeth Wagner-Koch, Gerard Wagner, “The Motif of the Human Being”, in Peter Stebbing, transl., The Individuality of Colour: Contributions to a Methodical Schooling in Colour Experience, revised edition, Forest Row, West Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, →ISBN, page 108:
2
Archaic, Literary The blood-red colour of raw flesh; crimson.
Now thou [the sea] must wear an unmix'd crimson; no / Barbaric blood can reconcile us now / Unto that horrible incarnadine, / But friend or foe will roll in civic slaughter.1821, Lord Byron, Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, page 119:
Now sixty-eight years of age she [Elizabeth I] has chosen for the occasion of a dance in her honor a long flowing velvet gown of incarnadine red.2014, John Ransome Bentley, chapter 31, in The Royal Secret, [La Cañada Flintridge, Calif.]: Meadow Grove, published June 2015, →ISBN, page 147:
incarnadine
verb
Etymology
The adjective is derived from French incarnadin, incarnadine, from Italian incarnadino, a variant of incarnatino (“carnation; flesh colour”), from incarnato (“embodied, incarnate”) + -ino (suffix forming adjectives denoting composition, colour, or other qualities). Incarnato is derived from Ecclesiastical Latin and Late Latin incarnātus (“having been made incarnate”), the perfect passive participle of incarnō (“to become or make incarnate; to make into flesh”), from in- (suffix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + Latin carō (“flesh, meat; body”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). By surface analysis, in- + Latin carn- + -ade + -ine. The noun and verb are derived from the adjective. Adjective senses 2 and 3 (“of the blood-red colour of raw flesh; (figurative) bloostained, bloody”) and noun sense 2 (“blood-red colour of raw flesh”) are due to William Shakespeare’s use of the word as a verb in Macbeth (c. 1606): see the quotation below.
[T]he clouds, till that time thick in the sky, broke away from the upper heaven, and allowed the noonday sun to pour down through the lantern upon her, irradiating her with a warm light that was incarnadined by her pink doublet and hose, and reflected in upon her face.1880–1881, Thomas Hardy, chapter VII, in A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the De Stancys. A Story of To-day. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], published 1881, →OCLC, book the second (continued; Dare and Havill), pages 37–38:
Will all great Neptunes ocean waſh this blood / Cleane from my Hand? no: this my Hand will rather / The multitudinous Seas incarnardine, / Making the Greene one, Red.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 137, column 1:
Virgins of equall birth, [...] / Shall draw thy picture, and record thy life; / One ſhall enſphere thine eyes, another ſhall / Impearl thy teeth[,] a third thy white and ſmall / Hand ſhall beſnow, a fourth incarnadine / Thy roſie cheek, [...]1640 (first publication), Thomas Carew, “Obsequies to the Lady Anne Hay”, in Poems, with a Maske, […], 3rd edition, London: […] H[umphrey] M[oseley] and are to be sold by J[ohn] Martin, […], published 1651, →OCLC, page 91:
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[H]e dies. / His wife her cheeks rends inconſolable, / His babes are fatherleſs, his blood the glebe / Incarnadines, and where he bleeds and rots / More birds of prey than women haunt the place.1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XI.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 283, lines 477–481:
And he, who turn'd the waters into blood, / Shall next incarnadine these desart sands, / Whilst dogs and vultures hunt us on the track.1807, [Richard Cumberland; James Burges], “Book the First”, in The Exodiad, a Poem, London: […] J. Wright, […], for Lackington, Allen, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 23:
[...] Aaron lifting high / The fatal wand, with gaze upturn'd to heaven, / Smote on the flood; and swifter than the lapse / Of falling star, abhorr'd contagion spread / O'er all the current, whose discolour'd train / In utmost amplitude from shore to shore / Still roll'd and inexhaustible roll'd on / A putrid sea of blood; with bitterness / Of scorn and anger Aaron mock'd the griev'd / Magician; then with Moses from my wrath / Withdrew; but left their witcheries behind / Incarnadining every lake and pool, / And long canal; [...]1807, Charles Hoyle, “Book IV”, in Exodus; an Epic Poem: In Thirteen Books, London: […] J[ohn] Hatchard, […], →OCLC, page 117, lines 298–309:
These were the times when the hardy military virtues might flourish—when Cressy and Agincourt could occur, and the war of the Roses incarnadine the soil of England: [...]1838, William Kent, “The Rise and Progress of Commercial Law in English Jurisprudence: An Inaugural Address”, in Inaugural Addresses, Delivered by the Professors of Law, in the University of the City of New-York, at the Opening of the Law School of that Institution. […], New York, N.Y.: E. B. Clayton, […], →OCLC, page 41: