incarnari

Incarnari is a verb form primarily encountered in Latin and, to a lesser extent, in historical or scholarly Italian texts. In Latin, incarnari is the present passive infinitive of incarnare, meaning to be incarnated or to be made flesh. In modern Italian, the standard active infinitive is incarnare, and the reflexive form incarnarsi is used for “to incarnate oneself.” As a result, incarnari is generally considered archaic or specialized, appearing mainly in Latin prose or in glosses within Italian lexical work.

Etymology and form

The word derives from Latin incarnare, itself built from caro, carnis “flesh” with the prefix in- and ending -are. The passive infinitive reflects a grammatical mood in which the subject is acted upon rather than performing the action.

Contexts and usage

In theological and philosophical discourse, the core concept related to incarnari is incarnation—the embodiment of a divine or transcendent being in a physical form. Latin writers discussing incarnation might use incarnari to express the idea of being incarnated, while nouns such as incarnatio or incarnatio divina describe the event itself. In Romance-language traditions, related verbs in Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese (incarnare, encarnar) convey the active sense of becoming flesh or embodying a principle, with noun forms like incarnazione or encarnación corresponding to the concept of incarnation.

Related terms

Close concepts include incarnation, embodiment, and avatar, each used in different religious and literary traditions to denote the embodiment of a nonmaterial essence in a tangible form.

See also

Incarnation; incarnation in theology; embodiment; avatar; encarnar/encarnación (in Romance languages).