tinge

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English tingen,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Latin tingō (“to moisten, immerse; to dye, colour”),^{[6][7][2][8][9]} from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to moisten, soak”),^[5] and so from the same Indo-European base as dunk.^[6][2] Cognates are Ancient Greek τέγγω (téngō, “to moisten”) and Old High German dunkōn (“to dip”), also thunkōn, now German tunken.^[2][5][4] The noun comes from the verb.^[6][2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dye or colour: 1471, as tingen, in Ripley's Compend of Alchemy, according to Barnhart.^[2] Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also date the verb to the late 15th century,^[7][10][11] but the OED, revised in 2021, and Merriam-Webster begin it in 1577, with Harrison's Description of Scotland.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

According to Ayto, the etymological sense is "soak, moisten"; the Latin meaning "dye" arose from dipping things in liquid dye.^[9] In English the verb has mostly meant giving a slight shade of colour, not a full dyeing.^[7][6][12] In alchemy it meant transforming a substance with a tincture, especially into a precious metal, from 1650,^[6] a use the post-classical Latin verb already had from the 12th century.^[6] A figurative use, modifying something with a trace of a feeling or quality, follows in the 1670s,^[6][7] on the notion of modifying by mixture or infusion,^[7] and a use for taste and smell from 1690.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as to impregnate or imbue with a colour or taste.^[13] The noun is recorded from 1683 in the revised OED, against 1752 in Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster,^[6][2][7][4] with the figurative "trace of a feeling or quality" from 1736.^[6] In 19th-century shop slang, a tinge was a secret mark on goods showing that a staff incentive was attached to selling them.^[6]

Timeline

• 1471 – to dye or colour, as tingen.^[2] The OED's first record of giving a shade of colour is from 1577.^[6]
• 1650 – in alchemy, to transform by a tincture.^[6]
• 1660 – intransitive, to take on a shade of colour.^[6]
• 1673 – figuratively, to imbue with a trace of a feeling or quality.^[6]
• 1683 – noun, a slight shade of colour.^[6]
• 1690 – to give a trace of a taste or smell.^[6]
• 1736 – noun, figuratively, a trace of a feeling or quality.^[6]
• 1850 – noun and verb, in shop slang, a mark on goods carrying a selling incentive.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give something a slight tint of colour: The sunset tinged the snow with pink.^[12][4][6]
2. To give something a slight trace of a feeling or quality: Her letter was tinged with regret.^[12][4][6]
3. To give something a slight taste or smell.^[4][6][10]
4. To take on a slight shade of colour.^[6][10]

Noun

1. A slight shade of colour: His beard had a tinge of red.^[12][4][6]
2. A slight trace of a feeling or quality; a touch: There was a tinge of envy in his praise.^[12][4][6]

Word family

• untinged

Related words

• tint
• tincture
• tinct
• taint
• dunk

Usage notes

Wright's dialect dictionary records two words of this spelling that he doesn't connect with it: in Lancashire a tinge was a small red bug, a tick, and in west Yorkshire to tinge was to work string or network over a ball.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
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)