incarnadine

Meanings

Adjective

• Of the pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation.
• Of the blood-red colour of raw flesh; crimson.
• Bloodstained, bloody.
• Of a red colour.

Noun

• The pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation.
• The blood-red colour of raw flesh; crimson.
• A red colour.

Verb

• To make flesh-coloured.
• To make red, especially blood-coloured or crimson; to redden.

Origin

• . Incarnato is derived from Ecclesiastical Latin and Late Latin incarnātus, the perfect passive participle of incarnō, from in- + Latin carō (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-) + -ō.
• 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 (): see the quotation below.