English
incarnadine
Incarnadine comes from Italian incarnadino, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-1‘to cut off, sever’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
- Italianc. 1300–presentincarnadino1
- Frenchc. 1600–presentincarnadin1
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1606incarnadine1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English incarnadine
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “Will all great Neptunes ocean waſh this blood /…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-Wiktionary, English incarnadine‘to cut off, sever’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
- Italianc. 1300–presentincarnadinoWiktionary, English incarnadine
- Frenchc. 1600–presentincarnadinWiktionary, English incarnadine
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1606incarnadineWiktionary, English incarnadine. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “Will all great Neptunes ocean waſh this blood /…”
The story
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). 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.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’
short, across, share, cross, screen, score, card, shirt, cancer, circle, circuit, crucial, curve, circus, circulation, skirt, curb, scare, crest, scrutiny, cancellation, carnival, shrine, circa, scorpion, scar, shred, corona, shear, raffle, circulate, corolla, shrewd, crux, cirque, scorn, incarceration, circulatory, crepe, corgi, 118 more
Today it means
adj Of the pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “incarnadine”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- / incarnadine