incarnadine — an adjective that means “flesh-colored” or “pale pink” but that also means “blood-red” and “crimson”
encarnado — the masculine Spanish adjective of the same meaning
encarnada — the feminine Spanish adjective of the same meaning
In English, the word “incarnate” can also be used as an adjective meaning the same as the above words, but it more commonly means that something is “invested with a bodily or human form.” The above-mentioned Spanish words are the cognates for “incarnate” also, and they look more like “incarnate” than “incarnadine.”
When “incarnate” is a verb, then its cognate is “encarnar” in Spanish. At the root of all these words, and many others, is the Latin carn or caro for “flesh.” Our English word of “flesh” comes to us from Old English, but we use a lot of words that have that “carn” in them and that refer to “flesh” in some way.
“Incarnation” refers to the physical form of something like a concept or something in nature or a deity, and when capitalized it is used for the human form of Jesus in Christianity. Its Spanish cognate is “encarnación.” Within each of those words, you can see that Latin “carn” for flesh. And then also if you are brought back into bodily form, you go through “reincarnation.”
A “carnivore” is a meat eater or a flesh eater. Naturally, there are easily recognized masculine and feminine cognates of that word in Spanish — “carnívoro” and “carnívora.” These are also the adjective cognates for our English adjective of “carnivorous.” “Carnal” pleasures are those “of the flesh,” and that word has an exact cognate in Spanish of “carnal.”
In English we use the word “meat” which comes to us from Old English as did “flesh.” In Spanish, though, the word for meat is “carne.” It’s a very common word when learning and speaking Spanish. Most students quickly make the connection to “carnivore” to help them remember the word “carne” in Spanish for “meat,” but there are many other words in English that have that Latin “carn” as their root. Those that do will have Spanish cognates, so knowing “carne” in Spanish can help you learn and recognize other words that contain a piece of it like “encarnar.”
Getting back to “incarnadine.” This is a much lesser-known word in English that incorporates (that’s another word that has “body” at its core) “carn.” I am kind of fascinated by this word, though. Here’s the explanation of its etymology from merriam-webster.com:
Carn- is the Latin root for "flesh," and "incarnates" is Latin for flesh-colored. English speakers picked up the "pinkish" sense of "incarnadine" back in the late 1500s. Since then, the adjective has come to refer to the dark red color of freshly cut, fleshy meat as well as to the pinkish color of the outer skin of some humans. The word can be used as a verb, too, meaning "to redden." Shakespeare used it that way in Macbeth: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red."
“Incarnadine” is probably my least favorite color, though, partly because it doesn’t look good on me and partly because it does remind me of blood which gives me the creeps, but we’ve just finished the Christmas season — a season marked heavily by the color red — so I thought this would be a good word to begin the new year.
Last week, I shared “respire” with the paid subscribers, so if you’d care to learn more about that word and not miss any “Cognate Cognizance” posts, please become a paid subscriber. It’s really not much money each month, and I would so appreciate it.
Until next time. Happy New Year.
Tammy Marshall
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