Word of the Week – Carnation

Ready to continue our series on flowers? Today, we’re going to look at the word carnation.

The word dates from around 1530s, though etymologists aren’t entirely sure where it came from. Their best guesses are that it’s a variant of coronation, either because the flower looks a bit like a crown or because it was frequently used to make flower-crowns…or perhaps it’s instead based on its traditional pink color. In French, carnation means “complexion,” a variation of the Italian carnagione, which means “flesh colored.” The Italian comes, in turn, from the Latin carnationem, ultimately from caro, meaning “flesh.”

That’s quite a trail of petals to follow back…but the Oxford English Dictionary casts doubt on it with one simple fact: not all carnations are pink and hence “skin colored.” 😉

But whether or not it is the first history of the English word, we can’t deny that it is a history of it–some of the first recorded uses of carnation are most definitely concerning human flesh, in a very particular way: the incarnation (taking on of flesh) of Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I’d never drawn a connection between the flower and the word incarnation!