bagatelle [bag-uh-tel]

noun:
1 something of little value or importance; a trifle
2 a game played on a board having holes at one end into which balls are to be struck with a cue
3 a short literary or musical piece in light style

Examples:

If anything, the slowly accumulating final chord of the bagatelle could have set up the softly arpeggiated one at the start of 'Twilight Way', the first of the 'Poetic Tone Pictures.' (Joshua Barone, Review: Dvorak’s 'Poetic Tone Pictures’ Makes Its Carnegie Debut, New York Times, February 2023)

Pinball got its start in 18th-century France with the billiardslike tabletop game bagatelle, which used a springlike launcher. (World-ranked pinball wizard is reviving the game in San Antonio with a new startup, san Antonio Express-News, March 2020)

When you are caught in a web of conspiracies, the best of deeds becomes a mere bagatelle, as we find in the fall of Udensi. (Henry Akubuiro, Travails of a Good Samaritan , The Sun Nigeria, March 2021)

Among the most divisive issues in philosophy today is whether there is anything important to be said about the essential nature of truth. Bullshit, by contrast, might seem to be a mere bagatelle. (Jim Holt, Say Anything, The New Yorker, August 2005)

'Overdue; was the title he had decided for it, and its length he believed would not be more than sixty thousand words - a bagatelle for him with his splendid vigor of production. (Jack London, Martin Eden)

The betrayal of one's friends is a bagatelle in the stakes of love, but the betrayal of oneself is a lifelong regret. (Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love)

Then there were the bird cages, the iron hoops, the steel skates, the Queen Anne coal-scuttle, the bagatelle board, the hand organ - all gone, and jewels, too. (Virginia Woolf, 'The Mark on the Wall')

Origin:

1630s, 'a trifle, thing of no importance,' from French bagatelle 'knick-knack, bauble, trinket' (16c.), from Italian bagatella 'a trifle,' which is perhaps a diminutive of Latin baca 'berry,' or from one of the continental words (such as Old French bague 'bundle') from the same source as English bag. As 'a piece of light music,' it is attested from 1827. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

incarnadine [in-kahr-nuh-dahyn, -din, -deen]

adjective:
1 blood-red; crimson
2 flesh-colored; pale pink
verb:
to make incarnadine, redden

Examples:

Inspired by the dreamlike, incarnadine color schemes of the series' covers, this piece exudes a fresh and fearsome attitude befitting an unapologetic battler of demons and fantastic beasts. (Rich Johnston, Level 52 and Vault Comics Create Statue For Natasha Alterici's Heathen, Bleeding Cool News, April 2020)

That outpouring of flowers from an upper window, washing down like a sea incarnadine around the white walls of the medieval fortress. (Chris Upton, 'Has sense of grief been hit by poppy spectacle?', The Birmingham Post, December 2014)

No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red. (William Shakespeare, Macbeth)

Oh no. He was emberant. Incarnadine. He was bright with better bright beneath, like copper-gilded gold. (Patrick Rothfuss, The Slow Regard of Silent Things )

On the lips incarnadine of my own beloved Joy there is honey most divine. (Giuseppe Calvino, Sicilian Erotica)

She ran quick with a little cry, and coming again, sat crowned, incarnadine in the blushing depths of the gold. (M P Shiel, The Purple Cloud)

Origin:

1590s (adj.) 'flesh-colored, carnation-colored, pale red, pink,' from French incarnadin (16c), from dialectal Italian incarnadino 'flesh-color,' from Late Latin incarnatio. The adjective now is archaic or obsolete. Its direct root might be the noun incarnadine 'blood-red; flesh-color,' though this is not attested until 1620s.(Online Etymology Dictionary)

Carn- is the Latin root for 'flesh,' and 'incarnates' is Latin for flesh-colored. English speakers picked up the 'pinkish' sense of 'incarnadine' back in the late 1500s. Since then, the adjective has come to refer to the dark red color of freshly cut, fleshy meat as well as to the pinkish color of the outer skin of some humans. The word can be used as a verb, too, meaning 'to redden.' Shakespeare used it that way in Macbeth: 'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.' (Merriam-Webster)

volte-face [ivolt-fahs, vohlt-; French vawltuh-fas]

noun:
1 a reversal, as in opinion or policy
2 a change of position so as to look, lie, etc, in the opposite direction

Examples:

This eventually culminates in some of its absolute biggest emotional beats relying on a major plot hole, and a volte-face that’s clearly angling for a cheer but is simply too far a turn to be believed. (Huw Saunders, Everyone Else Burns: Season 1 Review - Sitcomageddon, Culture Vultures, January 2023)

The following two decades saw her performing a volte-face by repudiating organized religion and instead devoting herself to fighting social inequality or rallying against the Vietnam War. (Malcolm Forbes, 'Nothing Stays Put' Review: Amy Clampitt, Late Bloomer, The Wall Street Journal, February 2023)

Earlier, the Railways had agreed to elevate the track and survey work had also been started. However, in a volte-face, the department has permanently shelved the suggestion. ('Generous to core': Sidhu Moosewala's teachers, friends remember him, The Tribune, January 2022)

She and I had been extremely close for more than a year, and there had been no warning of this volte-face. I was bewildered. (Zoë Heller, What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal)

Origin:

a reversal of opinion, 1819, French (17c), from Italian volta faccia, literally 'turn face,' from volta, imperative of voltare 'to turn' (from Vulgar Latin volvita, from Latin volvere 'to roll,' from PIE root wel- 'to turn, revolve') + faccia (face). (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Volte-face came to English by way of French from Italian voltafaccia, a combination of voltare, meaning 'to turn,' and faccia, 'face.' It has existed as an English noun since at least 1819. The corresponding English phrase 'about face' saw use in a number of forms in the decades before that, including military commands such as 'right about face' (that is, to turn 180 degrees to the right so as to face in the opposite direction); nevertheless, the standalone noun about-face (as in 'After declining, he did an abrupt about-face and accepted the offer') is about as old as volte-face. Although foot soldiers have been stepping smartly to the command 'About face! Forward march!' for centuries, about-face didn't appear in print as a figurative noun meaning 'a reversal of attitude, behavior, or point of view' until the mid-1800s.(Merriam-Webster)