真的進入身體
這一家最貼近字面：真的有一副身體。差別只在誰動手——是別人讓它進去，還是它自己走進去。
adjective · C1
Existing in a human body — used about a god, a spirit or any being that normally has no body but has taken flesh and can now be seen, touched and met.
化為肉身的
核心畫面
One way to hold this word: something that had no body walks in wearing one. A god, a spirit, a force — it was everywhere and nowhere, and now it has a face, two hands and a place to stand, so you could pass it in the street. That single move, from no body to a body, is the whole word. Every other use is that move done on something else. Do it to a being and you get a god incarnate. Do it to an idea and the idea gets a shape you can point at: a crown that holds a country's power. Do it to a quality and the quality seems to stand in front of you as a person — greed incarnate. And let the being walk in under its own power, with nobody sending it, and the verb simply takes no object at all.
可以想成一個本來沒有身體的存在，穿上了一副身體走進來。神、靈、某種力量——它原本到處都在、又哪裡都不在，現在有了臉、…更多收起
可以想成一個本來沒有身體的存在，穿上了一副身體走進來。神、靈、某種力量——它原本到處都在、又哪裡都不在，現在有了臉、有了兩隻手，有了可以站的位置，走在路上你會跟它擦身而過。從「沒有身體」到「有了身體」，這一步就是整個字。其他每一種用法，都是把這一步做在別的東西身上。做在一個存在身上，就是 a god incarnate。做在一個想法上，那個想法就有了指得出來的形狀，像一頂裝著國家權力的王冠。做在一種特質上，那個特質就好像變成一個人站在你面前，像 greed incarnate。而如果是那個存在自己走進來、沒有人送它進去，這個動詞就乾脆不接受詞。From the word’s history
Wiktionary traces the word to Ecclesiastical Latin incarnatus, built from in- plus caro, carn-, meaning flesh, with the adjective ending -ate; it is first attested in English around 1395, and the verb from 1533. So the parts spell out the picture: made into flesh. The religious use came first, and the wider uses reach back to that same image.
Wiktionary 把這個字追到教會拉丁文的 incarnātus，由 in-（進入）加上 carō／carn-（肉）再加 -ate 組成，字面就是「被做成肉身」。形容詞大約在 1395 年進入英文，動詞在 1533 年。所以宗教用法是最早的一種，後來其他用法都還回頭借這個畫面。
Wiktionary entry 'incarnate', etymologies 1 and 2 (packet source_refs kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1136717791 and :1136730195): from Ecclesiastical Latin incarnatus, in- + caro (flesh) + -ate; first attested 1395 (adj), 1533 (verb).
Two branches
抽象的東西拿到形體
這一家把同一步做在看不見的東西上。原本只是想法或特質，現在有了一個指得出來的形體，或是一個走得動的人。
adjective · C1
Used straight after a noun that names a quality, to say that someone or something shows that quality so completely that they seem to be the quality itself walking around in a body.
……的化身