pintura

Forms

pintura f (plural pinturas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinctūra, an alteration of Latin pictūra (“painting”) after *pinctus, the popular form of the past participle of pingō (“to paint”).^[2][3][4][1] The vulgar participle kept the /n/ of the present stem, which the classical participle lacked.^[3][1] Old Spanish pintura has the modern form from the first texts.^[5][4] The Academy's dictionary derived it from the classical noun in 1884; it now gives the Vulgar Latin form.^[6][2]

The Vulgar Latin noun is also Portuguese pintura, Catalan pintura and French peinture; Italian pittura continues the classical form.^[7][1] The Latin noun was formed from the verb with the suffix -tūra.^[8][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *ping-e/o- (“to paint”) and to Proto-Indo-European *pi-n-ḱ- (“to paint, adorn”), a nasal present.^[9]

The related verb pintar comes from *pinctāre, built on the same participle.^[3] Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and Occitan have this verb, while the other Romance languages kept the Latin verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (1246–1252, known from an 18th-century copy) uses it for a painted image of the Virgin, before which a sinner bowed: siempre se inclinava contra la su pintura.^[5] The first record without a later copy is the Aragonese Vidal Mayor of about 1250, which speaks of the blue used a fazer las pinturas en tu casa “to make the paintings in your house”.^[5] The BDELC dates the word 1220–1250.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has the art of painting, the panel or canvas painted, the painted work and a drawing or likeness: the General Estoria tells that King Atlas found the art of painting in Corinth.^[10] In the Americas the word named the pictorial records of the native peoples: in Mexico in 1546 tribute was valued por las pinturas que los indios dieren “by the paintings the Indians give”.^[11]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined painting as a liberal art that imitates nature, and also used the word for a detailed description in speech or writing, with a quotation from Lope de Vega.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 adds the forming of letters with the pen, and many technical phrases such as pintura al fresco.^[13] The sense “paint”, the coloured substance, entered the dictionary in 1884.^[6] The phrase no poder ver a alguien ni en pintura means to be unable to stand someone.^[14][1] In Puerto Rico pintura y capota is said of a person who seems what he is not.^[15]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – the BDELC's date, from Berceo.^[4][3]
• c. 1250 – pinturas in the Vidal Mayor, the first record without a later copy.^[5]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses it for the art of painting.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin encaustum for one kind of painting.^[16]
• 1536 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City: conforme a una traça e pintura.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the figurative sense “description”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “paint” and gives the etymology from Latin pictura.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The art of painting.^[17][2][1]
2. A panel (tabla), plate (lámina) or canvas (lienzo) on which something is painted.^[2]
3. A painted work, a painting: Compró una pintura de un paisaje marino.^[2][1]
4. Paint: colour prepared for painting: Necesitamos dos botes de pintura blanca.^[2][1]
5. The act of painting something, as a wall.^[2][17]
6. A vivid description (descripción) of people or things in words.^[2][17]

Word family

• quitapinturas
• pinturero

Related words

• pintar
• pintor
• pictórico
• Latin pictūra
• French peinture

Usage notes

Set phrases name techniques: pintura al fresco, pintura al óleo, pintura al temple, pintura rupestre “cave painting”.^[2][1][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. pintura
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 558
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pintar
5. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pintura
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 833
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 565
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pictūra
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. pintura
11. ^ a b 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. pintura
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 278
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 677
14. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 576
15. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pintura
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 397
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pintura