pintor

Forms

pintor m (plural pintores, feminine pintora, feminine plural pintoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish pintor, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinctor, a form of pictor (“painter”) that took its /n/ from pingō (“to paint”).^[2][3][4][1] The classical noun is formed from the verb with the agent suffix -tor.^[5][1]

The same Vulgar Latin form gave Portuguese pintor, Catalan pintor, Occitan pintor and French peintre, the last from the nominative; Italian pittore continues the classical form without /n/.^[6][7][8] Spanish pintar comes in the same way from a Vulgar Latin *pinctāre, built on a participle *pinctus in place of classical pictus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Calila e Dimna (1251), and Juan Ruiz uses it too.^[2][3] Alfonso X's Lapidario compares lines that are not straight to those drawn by pintor que non sopiesse bien pintar “a painter who did not know how to paint well”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija gave Latin pictor as its equivalent, and Autoridades (1737) defined it as one who practises the art of painting.^[10][11] The Academy listed the feminine pintora from 1843.^[12] In 1869 it added the phrase pintor de brocha gorda “broad-brush painter”, for one who paints doors and windows and, figuratively, a bad painter.^[13] The DLE now gives the house painter as a separate sense.^[4]

In the Americas the word has had colloquial senses: Alemany (1917) recorded “dandy” and, for Chile, “a boastful show-off”, and Malaret gives the adjective “swaggering, showy” for Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.^[14][15] In Argentina it also named a smock buttoned at the back that small children wore at school.^[16]

Timeline

• 1251 – first record, in Calila e Dimna.^[2][3]
• c. 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin pictor.^[10]
• 1554 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City: un pintor que tiñó las dichas mantas.^[17]
• 1737 – Autoridades defines it.^[11]
• 1869 – the Academy records pintor de brocha gorda.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. painter: a person who practises the art of painting (pintura): Es una pintora conocida por sus paisajes.^[4][1]
2. A house painter, a person whose trade is painting doors, windows, walls and the like.^[4][1]
3. (Argentina, obsolete) A smock buttoned at the back, worn by small children at school over their clothes.^[16]

Related words

• pintar
• pintoresco
• pintura
• Latin pictor
• Portuguese pintor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 558
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pintar
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. pintor
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. pintor
9. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. pintor
10. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 397
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 277
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 565
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 608
14. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1322
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 660
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pintor
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. pintor