CARNATION

noun Etymology: Middle French, from Old Italian carnagione, from carne flesh, from Latin carn-, caro Date: circa 1535 1. a. the variable color of human flesh, a pale to grayish yellow, a moderate red, a plant of any of numerous often cultivated and usually double-flowered varieties or subspecies of an Old World pink ( Dianthus caryophyllus ) originally flesh-colored but now found in many color variations