Wordcrafter noted, incarnadine – 1. of a fleshy pink color. 2. blood-red

It seems to me that fleshy pink and blood red are two very different colors. How did the word come to mean both?

Seanahan noted Shakespeare's line from Macbeth: "The multitudinous seas incardadine, making the green ones red." Could this be connected with the onset of the double-meaning?

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Originally posted by wordnerd:
Seanahan noted Shakespeare's line from Macbeth: "The multitudinous seas incardadine, making the green ones red." Could this be connected with the onset of the double-meaning?

Yes, I think so. The OED Online says this about the adjective and noun incardadine:

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arch.
A. adj. Properly, Flesh-coloured, carnation, pale red or pink; but b. also used for various shades of crimson or blood-red (cf. CARNATION2); in mod. use sometimes = Blood-stained (from Shakes. Macb. II. ii. 62: see INCARNADINE v.).
B. n. Flesh-colour, blush colour; also, a crimson or blood-red colour (see A).

It gives several citations for the "flesh-colored" meaning, the earliest being 1591 for the adjective and 1622 for the noun.

It give citations for the "blood-red" meaning starting with Byron quotes from 1820 for both adjective and noun.

The verb came later and Shakespeare's 1605 quote is the earliest given.

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arch.
trans. To dye or tinge with incarnadine (see prec.); to redden.
Properly, to make flesh-coloured or carnation; but from Shakespeare onward associated with the colour of blood.

It seems to me that Shakespeare incorrectly used the word, but that incorrect use established a new meaning.

Tinman

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It seems to me that fleshy pink and blood red are two very different colors. How did the word come to mean both?

I am not surprised at the differences in colors. I innocently started to do a color theme for wordcraft junior, and started to find real discrepancies with the dictionaries with colors. Azure was called anything from "light blue" to "deep blue" to "purplish blue." "Cerulean" is described, as "azure" is, as "sky-blue" or "bright blue," though it also is called a "purplish blue. "Likewise, "vermillion," which I always thought to be a "bright or scarlet red" (defined that way by OED), was called a "vivid red to a reddish orange" by AHD and Webster's. Redish orange? Purplish blue? I don't get it!

quote:

Originally posted by wordnerd:
Wordcrafter noted, incarnadine – 1. of a fleshy pink color. 2. blood-red

It seems to me that fleshy pink and blood red are two very different colors. How did the word come to mean both?

Seanahan noted Shakespeare's line from Macbeth: "The multitudinous seas incardadine, making the green ones red." Could this be connected with the onset of the double-meaning?

The word comes from the same root as "carnal", "carnivorous", "incarnate" and similar words which are derived from the Latin "carnalis" meaning "flesh" and flesh can be both pink and red.