carnifier

A rare medical/pathology term, almost always reflexive (se carnifier), describing lung tissue that hardens into a fleshy, fibrous mass as a complication of pneumonia or another lung disease — a process called carnification. Confined to clinical and pathology writing.

• Le tissu pulmonaire s'est carnifié à la suite d'une pneumonie mal soignée. — The lung tissue underwent carnification following poorly treated pneumonia.
• Les médecins ont observé un poumon carnifié à l'autopsie. — Doctors observed a carnified lung at the autopsy.
• Cette complication rare fait que le poumon se carnifie au lieu de guérir normalement. — This rare complication causes the lung to carnify instead of healing normally.

This verb is essentially never used outside pathology textbooks and clinical reports — there's no everyday confusion to flag, just a very narrow, technical meaning worth knowing exists.