taint

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English teinten, noun teint,^[2] and has a double source.^[3][4] In the senses "to convict" and "a blow" it is a shortening from English of attaint,^{[3][4][5][2][6]} which comes from Old French ataint, past participle of ataindre (“to touch upon, seize”),^[7][3][8] the source of attain, from Latin attingō (“to touch on, reach”), from ad- and tangō (“to touch”).^[3][9] In the senses "to dye" and "color" the verb is borrowed from Anglo-Norman teinter (“to color, dye”), the noun borrowed from Old French teint (“color, hue, dye”),^{[5][7][8][10]} the past participle of teindre (“to dye, color”), from Latin tingō (“to dye”);^[7][8][10] the OED also derives the noun from tinctus (“a dyeing”) and teinte, itself from Late Latin tincta.^[3] The noun meant dye and stain in Anglo-Norman from 1150–70,^[11] and the OED says that the strands, being identical in form, appear to have run together in the formation of the later senses.^[3] Barnhart calls both the verb and the noun a fusion of them,^[7] and Klein speaks of a partial blend.^[12] Other dictionaries weigh them differently: Weekley takes taint as chiefly from attaint,^[13] while Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged start from the French dyeing verb with influence from attaint,^[14][10] and Skeat gives the French word alone.^[15] The OED notes that attaint itself was associated in fancy with the dyeing verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Affected or struck, as the adjective taint, the aphetic form of attaint: about 1330, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle.^[3] Barnhart dates the verb "to convict, prove guilty" to about 1350,^[7] while the OED's first quotation for it is from Mandeville's Travels, about 1400.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Middle English already let the meanings overlap, according to Etymonline,^[8] and the Middle English Dictionary notes the same between its verbs teinten.^[2] The legal strand gave "to convict" and "to prove a charge", and in tilting a hit, while the dyeing strand gave "to color" and, as a noun, "color, hue".^[3][7] The blend began in the late 16th century: touching or tinging something with an undesirable quality, and contaminating or corrupting it.^[3][8][7] Shakespeare used the blended senses, as in the stain of Twelfth Night and the intransitive "I cannot taint with Feare" of Macbeth, meaning to lose courage.^[3][7][10] Trench explained the modern use from the fact that discoloration commonly accompanies decay.^[16] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a tincture; a stain", and also recorded a small red spider called a taint.^[17] A flaw in a hawk's feathers was a taint from 1486.^[3][2] In North Yorkshire dialect wood that had decayed was said to taint, in the form tent.^[18] The 20th century added driving out rabbits by a bad smell (1909) and an unpleasant scent as a noun (1927).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – adjective, affected, struck.^[3]
• c. 1350 – verb, to convict, prove guilty.^[7] The OED's first quotation is of c. 1400.^[3]
• before 1398 – verb, to dye or color, in a doubtful reading.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.^[8]
• c. 1400 – noun, a hit in tilting, also a blow.^[3][7] Etymonline dates teint, shame or disgrace, to the same time.^[8]
• 1486 – noun, a flaw in a hawk's feathers.^[3]
• 1530 – noun, a conviction, especially of a jury for a false verdict.^[3]
• 1566 – noun, a disease of horses.^[3]
• 1567 – noun, color, hue, tinge.^[3][7][10]
• 1573 – verb, to contaminate, corrupt.^[3][8]
• 1591 – verb, to touch or tinge with something undesirable, in Shakespeare's 1 Henry VI.^[7] The OED's first quotation is of 1605.^[3]
• 1601 – noun, a stain or spot, in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.^[7][3]
• 1615 – noun, a latent trace of disease.^[3]
• 1623 – noun, a contaminating or corrupting influence.^[3] Etymonline dates the moral sense to the 1610s.^[8]
• 1909 – verb, to drive rabbits out by an offensive smell.^[3]
• 1927 – noun, an unpleasant scent.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To contaminate or pollute something: Runoff from the mine tainted the river.^[14][6][3]
2. To damage a person's reputation by association with something bad; to tarnish: Rumors of bribery tainted her years in office.^[14][9][6]
3. To touch or affect slightly with something undesirable.^[10][3]
4. To corrupt morally.^[10][3]
5. (archaic) Of food or water, to become contaminated; to rot.^[19][10]
6. (obsolete) To color or tinge.^[10][2]
7. (obsolete, 1400–1603) To convict; to prove guilty.^[3][20]
8. (obsolete, 1525–1590) To touch or strike in tilting.^[3][20]
9. (obsolete, 1616–1639) To lose courage; to become weak.^[3][10]

Noun

1. A trace of something bad or undesirable: the taint of scandal.^[14][6][10]
2. A stain or blemish on a person's reputation.^[10][3][20]
3. A contaminating or corrupting influence.^[10][3][6]
4. A trace of infection or decay.^[14][3]
5. An unpleasant scent.^[3]
6. (obsolete, 1400–1611) A hit in tilting.^[3][20]
7. (obsolete, 1530–1706) A conviction, especially of a jury for a false verdict.^[3][20][10]
8. (obsolete, 1567–1593) Color, hue, tinge.^[3][10][20]

Word family

• taintless
• taintlessly
• taintlessness
• untainting

Related words

• attaint
• attain
• attainder
• tint
• tinge
• tincture

Usage notes

A separate colloquial spelling, ’taint, is a contraction of it ain't, recorded in American English by the 1830s.^[8] From it comes the noun for the perineum, recorded from 1955.^[3] Etymonline dates the joke on the word to at least 1977.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ 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)
19. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
20. ^ a b c d e f The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers