tarnish

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ternishen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French ternir (“to dull the lustre of, make dim”), from its extended stem terniss-,^[5][4][6][3] which is probably from Middle French terne (“dull, dark”).^[3][4][6] The OED notes that the vowel of the first syllable changed from e to a in English,^[5] and Weekley compares the vowel of varnish.^[7] The French adjective is of doubtful origin.^[5][8] Diez and others referred it to a Germanic source related to Old High German tarnan (“to conceal, hide”), Old Saxon dernjan and Old English dyrnan, from the adjective tarni (“hidden, secret”), the counterpart of dierne, the source of dern;^{[5][3][9][10]} the American Heritage Dictionary gives the source as Frankish *tarnjan,^[11] and Barnhart traces the family to Proto-Germanic *darnjaz (“hidden”).^[4][12] The OED and Etymonline point out difficulties in this: the late appearance of the French word, and its form and sense.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of metal, to become discoloured, to turn green through oxidation: probably before 1439, in Lydgate's Fall of Princes, where Venus's metal, copper, wil ternyssh grene.^[2][4] The OED, which found no example of ternish, dates the verb from before 1529, in Skelton, in the sense to grow dull or lose lustre.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense, of metals losing their brightness, came first.^[5][3][6] The transitive use, to dull or discolour the lustre of something, is recorded in Florio's dictionary of 1598,^[5][4] although Etymonline dates it only to the 1670s.^[3] The figurative uses followed late in the 17th century: Dryden used the verb in 1681 of glories that tarnish,^[5][6] and by 1695 it meant to stain or sully a person's honour or good name.^[5][3][13] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to sully; to soil; to make not bright".^[14] The noun, the condition of being tarnished, is dated by the OED and Etymonline to 1713,^[5][3] but Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1684 as its first known use;^[15] it later also meant the film or altered colour on the surface of a metal or mineral.^[15][6]

Timeline

• before 1439 – ternyssh, of copper, to turn green through oxidation.^[2][4]
• before 1529 – intransitive, to grow dull or dim; of metals, to lose lustre.^[5]
• 1598 – transitive, to dull or discolour the lustre of something; the spelling tarnish.^[5][4]
• 1681 – figurative, to become dull or sullied.^[5][6]
• 1684 – noun, the condition of being tarnished.^[15] The OED and Etymonline date the noun to 1713.^[5][3]
• 1695 – figurative, to stain or sully a person's honour or reputation.^[5][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dull or destroy the lustre of something, especially a metal, through contact with air, damp or dirt; to discolour: The damp air had tarnished the brass handles.^[15][16][6]
2. Of metal, to lose its shine: Copper tarnishes quickly near the sea.^[16][6][15]
3. To damage the good name or quality of something; to sully or taint: The bribery scandal tarnished the mayor's reputation.^[16][15][6]

Noun

1. The condition of being tarnished; loss of shine, or a stain or blemish.^[15][16][6]
2. The dull film or changed colour on the surface of a metal or mineral.^[15][6]
3. A lowering of quality, worth or esteem.^[15]

Word family

• tarnishable
• antitarnish
• nontarnishing

Related words

• dern
• varnish

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins