stain

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English steinen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French desteindre (“to take the colour out of”), from its present stem desteign-, with the first syllable lost,^[5][4][6][2] as in distain, which appears at the same time.^[5][7] The Old French verb is made of des- (“dis-”) and teindre (“to dye”), from Latin tingō (“to dye”),^[3][4][5] the source of tinge.^[4] In the Romance languages the verb only means "to remove the dye from" or "to fade", and the OED finds some English senses hard to explain: Anglo-Norman may have taken the prefix in the sense "diversely", or the French verb may have merged with Old Norse steina (“to paint”), from steinn (“paint”), probably the same word as the noun for "stone".^[5] Etymonline, Barnhart, the AHD and Merriam-Webster accept such a merger,^[3][4][8][9] and Dictionary.com takes the verb mainly from Old Norse, with only some senses explained as aphetic.^[10] Hoad also calls the development of the sense "impart colour" obscure.^[6] The noun comes from the verb.^[5][11][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To discolour something with spots or streaks of blood or dirt: 1382, in the earlier Wycliffite Bible (Genesis 37:31).^[5][4] Etymonline dates the verb to the mid-14th century in the sense "ornament with a design".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English verb took both of the opposite senses: "to change or remove the colour of" and "to give colour to".^[6] Trevisa used it for "to lose colour" before 1387,^[5] and it could mean "to deprive of colour" from 1477;^[5] the poets of the 1550s used it for outshining, as when the sun takes away the lustre of the stars,^[5] and Etymonline notes the meanings "impart beauty to" and "grow pale".^[3] Meanwhile stain, to impart colour, is recorded from about 1440,^[5] and the figurative sense "to taint with guilt" from 1446 in Barnhart,^[4] early in the 15th century in Etymonline.^[3] The blemishing of a person's name followed in 1513.^[4] The noun began in 1563 as the act of staining or disgrace,^[5][4] and the Oxford Dictionary of English notes that its first sense was "defilement, disgrace";^[12] a spot of discoloration is recorded from 1583, and a moral blemish from Shakespeare's Lucrece (1594).^[5][3] A dye used for staining followed in 1758,^[3] and the biologists' intransitive sense, "to take a stain", in 1877.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) gave the noun as "blot; spot; discoloration".^[13] In Somerset stain meant to paint.^[14] Barnhart dates stainless steel to 1917.^[4]

Timeline

• 1382 – verb, to discolour with spots of blood or dirt.^[5][4]
• before 1387 – intransitive, to lose colour (obsolete by 1614).^[5]
• c. 1440 – of something dyed, to impart its colour.^[5]
• 1446 – figurative, to taint with guilt.^[4]
• 1477 – to deprive of colour (obsolete by 1589).^[5]
• 1563 – noun, the act of staining; disgrace.^[5][4]
• 1583 – noun, a discoloured spot.^[5]
• 1594 – noun, a moral blemish, a mark of disgrace.^[5]
• 1758 – noun, a dye used for staining.^[3]
• 1877 – intransitive, to take a stain.^[5][3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To mark or discolour with patches of something that soils: Red wine had stained the tablecloth.
2. To colour with a penetrating dye or pigment, as wood or glass.
3. To bring disgrace or shame on; to taint morally: The scandal stained his reputation.
4. To colour specimens with a dye for study under a microscope.
5. To take a stain; to become stained.

Noun

1. A spot or mark of discoloration caused by foreign matter: a grease stain on the sleeve.
2. A mark of disgrace on a person's character or reputation; a stigma.
3. A dye or other substance used for staining.
4. A natural spot of colour different from the background, as on an animal.

Word family

• stainable
• stainer
• stainproof
• stainability
• stainably
• counterstain
• tearstain
• bloodstain

Related words

• distain
• tinge
• tincture
• tint
• stainless

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)