Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

incarnate en · ADJ · etymology 1

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.neɪt/ (General-American)
  • /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/ (General-American)
  • /ɪnˈkɑːnət/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ɪnˈkɑːneɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

First attested in 1395, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English incarnat(e) (“(of God or Christ) embodied in human form or flesh, incarnate; provided with new tissues, healed; (with devel, in curses) bloody”), borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin incarnātus, perfect passive participle of incarnor (“to be made flesh, become incarnate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- + Latin carō (“flesh”, carn- in its oblique stem) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). By surface analysis, in- + Latin carn- + -ate.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable, qualifier:traditionally postpositive; now frequently prepositive; traditionally postpositive; now frequently prepositive) Embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified.
    • 1751-1753, John Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History He […] represents the emperor and his wife as two devils incarnate, sent into the world for the destruction of mankind.
    • Here shalt thou sit incarnate. 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
  2. (not-comparable, obsolete) Flesh-colored; crimson.
    • Yards of Turkey silk incarnate. 1721, John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials; Relating Chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of It, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII. King Edward VI. and Queen Mary the First. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] John Wyat, […], →OCLC:

Deriveds

unincarnate · disincarnate

Translations (15)

es encarnado (given a bodily form) · de fleischgeworden (given a bodily form) · el ενσώματος (given a bodily form) · ru воплощённый (given a bodily form) · fi ruumiillistunut (given a bodily form) · sv människobliven (given a bodily form) · cy ymgnawdoledig (given a bodily form) · ru во плоти́ (given a bodily form) · bg олицетворен (given a bodily form) · fi lihaksi tullut (given a bodily form) · bg въплътен (given a bodily form) · fi lihallistunut (given a bodily form) · fr incarné (given a bodily form) · de inkarnat (given a bodily form) · el ενσαρκωμένος (given a bodily form)

wikipedia: Middle English

incarnate en · VERB · etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • /ˈɪnkɑːneɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.neɪt/ (General-American)
  • /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/ (General-American)
  • /ɪnˈkɑːneɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

First attested in 1533; borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin incarnātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

Meanings

  1. (intransitive) To embody in flesh; to invest with a bodily, especially a human, form.
    • For one thing, we virtually decided that these morbidities and the hellish Himalayan Mi-Go were one and the same order of incarnated nightmare. 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 2, in The Whisperer in Darkness:
    • Not all of the soul can incarnate into a body; the part which is left above is the psyche. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 218:
  2. (broadly, intransitive) To gain full existence (bodily or otherwise).
    • SCP-3125 incarnated the following winter. 2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 161:
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To incarn; to become covered with flesh; to heal over.
    • My uncle Toby’s wound was near well, and as soon as the surgeon recovered his surprize, and could get leave to say as much—he told him, 'twas just beginning to incarnate. 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 83:
  4. (transitive) To make carnal; to reduce the spiritual nature of.
    • This essence to incarnate and imbrute, / That to the height of deity aspired. 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
  5. (figuratively, transitive) To put into or represent in a concrete form, as an idea.
    • Truly, that special world presented itself to me as the arena of my perceptual activity and therefore as the world of my first reading. The texts, the words, the letters of that context were incarnated in a series of things, objects, and signs. 2005, Paulo Freire, Donaldo Macedo, Literacy: Reading the Word and the World, →ISBN, page 20:
    • Responding to this in confusion, perhaps you construct an Idea, a structure, a multiplicity, a system of multiple, nonlocalisable ideal connections which is then incarnated. It is incarnated in real (not ideal) relations and actual (physical) terms, each of which exists in relation to each other, reciprocally determining each other. 2006, Constantin V. Boundas, Deleuze and Philosophy, →ISBN, page 160:
    • The two are fused together in a single act and single product, precisely as an idea incarnated in an image, i.e., the expression of an embodied-spirit, grasped all at once as a meaning shining through a manifold of images and held as one in the unity of human consciousness which is simultaneously intellectual and sensible. 2013, B.E. Babich, Hermeneutic Philosophy of Science, Van Gogh’s Eyes, and God, →ISBN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
incarnating Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
incarnated Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
incarnated Tense=Past lexicographic
incarnates Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic

Deriveds

unincarnated · incarnatable · nonincarnated · disincarnate

Relateds

carnal · incarnation · reincarnation · excarnation · reincarnate · excarnate

Translations (28)

bg въплъщавам (to embody in flesh) · it materializzare (to represent in a concrete form) · el ενσαρκώνω (to embody in flesh) · ca encarnar (to embody in flesh) · bg въплъщавам (to make carnal) · it concretizzare (to represent in a concrete form) · cy ymgnawdoli (to represent in a concrete form) · ru воплоща́ть (to embody in flesh) · fi maallistaa (to make carnal) · eo enkarniĝi (to embody in flesh) · ar جَسَّدَ (to make carnal) · ru осуществля́ть (to represent in a concrete form) · cy ymgorffori (to represent in a concrete form) · bg олицетворявам (to represent in a concrete form) · pt encarnar (to embody in flesh) · fi havainnollistaa (to represent in a concrete form) · el προσωποποιώ (to represent in a concrete form) · cy ymgnawdoli (to embody in flesh) · fi ruumiillistaa (to embody in flesh) · el ενσαρκώνω (to make carnal) · pt encarnar (to represent in a concrete form) · es encarnar (to represent in a concrete form) · ru олицетвори́ть (to embody in flesh) · ru воплоти́ть (to embody in flesh) · ru олицетворя́ть (to embody in flesh) · cy cnawdoli (to make carnal) · es encarnar (to embody in flesh) · ru осуществи́ть (to represent in a concrete form)

incarnate en · ADJ · etymology 3

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- English carnate English incarnate From in- + carnate.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable, rare) Not in the flesh; spiritual.
    • I fear nothing […] that devil carnate or incarnate can fairly do. 1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC: