incarnation
(ɪnkɑːˈneɪʃən)
[a. F. incarnation, in 12th c. Norman F. incarnaciun (Phil. de Thaun), ad. late L. incarnātiōn-em (in Hilary, Jerome, Ambrose, etc.), n. of action from incarnāre: see incarn.]
1. The action of incarnating or fact of being incarnated or ‘made flesh’; a becoming incarnate; investiture or embodiment in flesh; assumption of, or existence in, a bodily (esp. human) form. a. spec. of Christ, or of God in Christ. Often absol. the Incarnation. (The earliest and still the prevalent sense. In early use often in reference to the Christian era: the date of the incarnation or birth of Christ.)
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 197 Þe vifþe [age] was fram dauid to þe transmigracion Of babiloyne and þe sixþe to þe incarnacion, Þat was vorte god was ibore. 1382 Wyclif Isa. Gen. Prol., The principal entent of the profetis is to declare the mysterie of Cristis incarnacioun, passioun, resurreccioun, ascensioun, and the comyng to the general doom. ? a 1400 Arthur 626 Þe yheer after þe Incarnacione, Vyf hundred fourty & two. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxii. 146 Þai trowe wele þe incarnacioun of Criste. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 123 He was borne after the Incarnacion of oure lord ij. c. yeres. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 179 b, The preemynence of his moost gracyous incarnacyon. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. li. §3 Taking..our flesh, and by his incarnation making it his owne flesh. 1653 Walton Angler i. 13 Angling is much more ancient then the incarnation of our Saviour. 1726 tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 251 We are to take notice, that Dionysius, called Exiguus, was the Author of this æra five hundred Years after Christ, from which time they began to reckon from the Nativity or Incarnation of Christ. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 128 It is said, The Word was made flesh, whence we speak of the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord, i.e. ‘His taking on Him our Flesh’. |
b. In general sense.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. i. 274 The woman being formed out of the rib, was once removed from earth, and framed from that element under incarnation. 1684 T. Burnet Th. Earth i. 301 The incarnation, as I may so say, of a spiritual substance, is to me a kind of standing miracle. 1841 Emerson Meth. Nat. Wks. (Bohn) II. 227 The thoughts he delights to utter are the reason of his incarnation. 1858 Sears Athan. iii. iii. 272 The reader will here distinguish carefully between two things—between the resurrection and the re-incarnation of the dead. |
c. fig. The putting into, or assumption of, a concrete or definite form; ‘embodiment’. ? Obs.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 274 Before the birth or incarnation as we may say of Philosophy. 1648 Herrick Hesper., Julia's Picture, How am I ravish'd, when I do but see The painter's art in thy sciography? If so, how much more shall I dote thereon, When once he gives it incarnation. |
2. concr. a. A body, person, or form in which a soul, spirit, or deity is incarnated; an incarnate or embodied form (of).
| 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 1341 When shall my soul her incarnation quit, And..Obtain her Apotheosis in Thee? 1836 Emerson Nature, Spirit Wks. (Bohn) II. 167 The world..is a remoter and inferior incarnation of God. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. iv. 167 Vishnu and Siva..and their incarnations now attract almost all the religious veneration of the Hind{uacu}s. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 387/1 The other Avatâras, descents or incarnations of Vishn'u. Ibid., His first incarnation was that of a fish. 1899 Sayce Early Israel v. 181 The line of the Pharaohs, the incarnations of the Sun-God. |
b. A person in whom some quality, attribute, principle, etc. is exhibited in a bodily form; a living type or representative, embodiment, impersonation (of a quality, etc.).
| 1833 L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 126 Blue-Beard, that incarnation of juvenile romance. 1847 Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) II. 551 Great men are the incarnations of the spirit of the age. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. iv, You incarnation of sauciness. 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. x. 302 William Rufus..a foul incarnation of selfishness in its most abhorrent form. |
c. Loosely or by extension: A thing in which some quality, etc. is typically represented or exhibited; an embodiment (of).
| 1821 Shelley Adonais xiii, Splendours, and Glooms, and glimmering Incarnations Of hopes and fears, and twilight Phantasies. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xiii. (1878) 244 The grounds about the Hall seemed the incarnation of a summer which had taken years to ripen to perfection. |
† 3. Conception (in the womb). Obs. rare.
| 1548–67 Thomas Ital. Dict., Incarnacione, the incarnation or engenderyng tyme. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 3 That quality that doth predominate in the Spirit at the incarnation and Birth, that very same property doth carry the upper Dominion in the Body. |
4. The formation or growth of new flesh upon or in a wound or sore; healing up; granulation. Also concr., a growth of new flesh.
| 1544 T. Phaer Regim. Lyfe (1560) P ij, Procede with mundification and incarnation, even as in other kindes of apostumes. 1699 Phil. Trans. XXI. 403 The external containing parts of the Neck began now to unite by Incarnation. 1783 Pott Chirurg. Wks. II. These were soon covered with an incarnation. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) II. 18 From this period the process of incarnation commences. |
5. Flesh-colour, carnation; a pigment or dye of this colour. Obs. or arch.
| c 1485 E.E. Misc. (Warton Club) 73 For an incarnacion, take sable and saffrone and rede lede, and medylle heme welle togedyre. 1573 Art of Limning 8 b, If you wil make incarnations for Visages, or a fleshly colour for Images. 1821 Byron Cain iii. i, His little cheeks, In their pure incarnation. |
b. attrib. or as adj. Flesh-coloured, light pink: = incarnate a. 3. Obs. or arch.
| 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 116 b, Damaske roses, incarnation roses, muske roses. 1652 Urquhart Jewel Wks. (1834) 242 A pair of incarnation velvet slippers. 1672 Phil. Trans. VII. 5172 The Dying of Wool of an Incarnation colour, with a kind of Moss growing in Malta. |
† 6. The plant carnation. Obs.
| 1538 Turner Libellus A iij a, Herba quam uernacula lingua uocamus a Gelofer, aut a Clowgelofer, aut an Incarnacyon. |
Hence incarˈnationist, a believer in an incarnation; also attrib. or as adj. So also incarˈnationalist.
| 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 223 The new Incarnationists of Johanna Southcote. 1903 Q. Rev. Apr. 519 Wherever the Incarnationist idea originated, it did not originate in Hellenism. 1939 A. Toynbee Study of Hist. IV. 625 The Christology which Dr. Conybeare calls ‘Incarnationist’ ought properly to be called ‘Conceptionist’. 1962 Listener 11 Jan. 68/2 This ‘incarnationalist’ type of doctrine—to be culled from almost every page of so very orthodox a teacher as our own Henry Scott Holland, for example—urges that the divine for us must mean the vision of a new humanity. |