▪ I. † carˈnation1 Obs.
[a. OF. carnation, -acion = incarnation (perh. aphetic form).]
= Incarnation.
| c 1410 Love Bonavent. Mirr. iii. (Gibbs MS.) Þe secund Adame cryste god and man reformed his ymage in his carnacioun. 1570–87 Holinshed Scot. Chron. (1806) I. 395 He was slain the year of the carnation 1057. 1710 Hopkins Wks. 716 (R.) The..temporal carnation of the Son of God. |
▪ II. carnation2, n. and a.
(kɑːˈneɪʃən)
[ad. L. carnātiōn-em (in Cælius Aurelianus c 420 in sense ‘fleshiness, corpulence’), f. carn-em flesh; cf. F. carnation, and It. carnagione ‘the hew or colour of ones skin and flesh’ (Florio).]
A. n.
1. † a. The colour of human ‘flesh’ or skin; flesh-colour (obs.); b. a light rosy pink, but sometimes used for a deeper crimson colour as in the carnation flower.
| c 1535 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 921 Carnatyon, carnation. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 67 Some of them glitter..with a deepe purple, and some with a passing beautifull Carnation. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iii. 35 A could neuer abide Carnation, 'twas a Colour he neuer lik'd. 1622 Peacham Compl. Gentl. xiii. 129 Flesh-colours or Carnations for the face and complexion. 1662 Phillips, Carnation, a kind of colour resembling raw flesh. 1827 Lytton Pelham iii, Her complexion of the most delicate carnation. 1863 M. E. Braddon Eleanor's Vict. III. viii. 108 The pink-blossom tint of her cheeks was intensified into vivid carnation. |
2. pl. ‘Flesh tints’ in a painting; those parts of a painting which represent the naked skin.
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn., Carnation, is a Term in Painting, signifying such Parts of an Human Body as are drawn naked..or what express the bare Flesh; and when this is done Natural, Bold, and Strong, and is well coloured, they say of the Painter, that his Carnation is very good. 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. xxxiv, What attitudes, carnations, and draperies! 1812 Examiner 25 May 327/1 He has been..less happy then usual in his carnations. |
3. Name of a variety of cherry.
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 210 Cherries: Carnations, Morella. 1767 J. Abercrombie Ev. Man own Gard. (1803) 674/1 Cherries, early May, Carnation, Amber. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. I. 163. |
B. adj. [attrib. use of the n. in sense 1.] † a. Flesh-coloured (obs.); b. rose pink. See A. 1.
| 1565–78 Cooper Thesaur., Carnosus candor, a carnation whitenesse. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. lvi. 217 [The flowers of the orchis are]..of a carnation or fleshly colour like the colour of mans body. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 146 How much Carnation Ribbon may a man buy? 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 13 A certain four-footed beast of a yellowish-carnation colour. Ibid. 232 [Of Horses] the chief colours are these; bay, white, carnation, golden, russet, mouse-colour, flea-bitten, spotted, pale and black. 1653 H. Cogan Pinto's Trav. li. §1. 202 In a Carnation Satin Suit. 1820 Scott Monast. xvi, Hanging garters of carnation silk. 1824 Byron Juan xvi. xciii, Juan grew carnation with vexation. |
| fig. 1647 Ward Simp. Cobler 86 To sugar your papers with Carnation phrases. |
C. Comb., as carnation-coloured, carnation-painted adjs.
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 64 When these Italionate carnation painted horses tayles were in fashion. 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek 99 His superb carnation-coloured tent. |
▪ III. carnation3
(kɑːˈneɪʃən)
Also 6 incarnacyon, coron-, cornation.
[Some 16th c. authors give one form of the name as coronation, apparently from its 16th c. specific name, Betonica coronaria, in allusion to its use in chaplets (cf. campion), or from ‘the floures..dented or toothed aboue..like to a littell crownet’ (Lyte). On the other hand, Turner calls the plant an incarnacyon, Lyte has carnation as well as coronation, and Gerarde expressly identifies it with the colour ‘carnation’. Prior takes coronation as the original form, and Britten and Holland think his opinion ‘probably correct’.
One or other name must have been due to popular mistake; carnation is alone found after 1600, and has apparently even modified the later application of ‘carnation’ as a colour-name: the flower, however, is not always of this colour: as Lyte says, ‘some be of colour white, some carnation or of a liuely flesshe colour, some be of a cleare or bright redde, some of a darke or deepe redde, and some speckled’.]
The general name for the cultivated varieties of the clove-pink (Dianthus caryophyllus).
| 1538 Turner Libellus Aiij, Betonica altilis siue coronaria, que a quibusdam uocatur cariophillatum, est herba quam uernacula lingua uocamus a Gelofer, aut a Clowgelofer aut an Incarnacyon. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. vii. 156 In English garden Gillofers, Cloaue gillofers, and the greatest and brauest sorte of them are called Coronations or Cornations. Ibid. 154 Vetonica altilis, Carnations, and the double cloaue Gillofers. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Apr. 138 Bring Coronations, and Sops in wine, Worne of Paramoures. 1597 Gerard Herbal ii. clxxii. 473 The great Carnation Gilloflower..flowers of an excellent sweete smell, and pleasant Carnation colour, whereof it tooke his name. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 82 Carnations, and streak'd Gilly-vors. 1779 Sheridan Critic ii. ii, The striped Carnation, and the guarded rose. 1814 Wordsw. Excurs. i. 757 Carnations, once Prized for surpassing beauty. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. I. 207 Clove-Pink, Carnation, or Clove-Gilly-flower. |
| attrib. 1631 Milton Epit. Mch'ness Winchester 37 The pride of her carnation train. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) III. 107 Basilicons, with a carnation smell, exhaled the sweetest of perfumes. |