carnation

From Middle French carnation (“person's color or complexion”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɑːˈneɪ.ʃən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kɑɹˈneɪ.ʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

carnation (countable and uncountable, plural carnations)

1. (botany) A type of Eurasian plant widely cultivated for its flowers.
   1. originally, Dianthus caryophyllus
   2. other members of genus Dianthus and hybrids
2. The type of flower they bear, originally flesh-coloured, but since hybridizing found in a variety of colours.
3. A rosy pink colour

   carnation colour:  

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 6:

     And the women of New Bedford, they bloom like their own red roses. But roses only bloom in summer; whereas the fine carnation of their cheeks is perennial as sunlight in the seventh heavens.

4. (archaic) The pinkish colors used in art to render human face and flesh

   carnation colour:  

5. A scarlet colour.

• (plant, flower): clove pink (also called gillyflower), (ancestor of the carnation) Dianthus caryophyllus
• (plant, flower): cottage pink, Dianthus plumarius

• carnal
• carnassial
• carnify
• carnival
• carnivore
• carnosity
• incarnadine
• incarnate

carnation (not comparable)

1. Of a rosy pink or red colour.
2. (archaic) Of a human flesh color.

• (reds) red; blood red, brick red, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, carnation, cerise, cherry, cherry red, Chinese red, cinnabar, claret, crimson, damask, fire brick, fire engine red, flame, flamingo, fuchsia, garnet, geranium, gules, hot pink, incarnadine, Indian red, magenta, maroon, misty rose, nacarat, oxblood, pillar-box red, pink, Pompeian red, poppy, raspberry, red violet, rose, rouge, ruby, ruddy, salmon, sanguine, scarlet, shocking pink, stammel, strawberry, Turkey red, Venetian red, vermillion, vinaceous, vinous, violet red, wine ^{(Category: en:Reds)}
• gypsophila

• Cantorian, Carnotian

From Middle French, possibly from Italian carnagione (“flesh color”), either way from Late Latin carnātiō (“fleshiness”) (from Latin carō (“flesh”)), or from a corruption of coronation (from Latin corōnāre (“to crown”), from corōna (“crown”)), because of the flower's use in chaplets or from the toothed crown-like look of the petals.

• IPA^(key): /kaʁ.na.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

carnation f (countable and uncountable, plural carnations)

1. (uncountable) a fleshy pinkish color (not the color of a carnation flower)
2. (countable) skin tone

   Synonym: teint

• “carnation” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• connaitra, connaîtra