teñir

Forms

teñir (first-person singular present tiño, first-person singular preterite teñí, past participle teñido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote tennir beside teñir, and had the preterite forms tinxo, tinxiesen and tinxiera.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish teñir, inherited from Latin tingō (“to wet, soak; to dye”).^[4][5][1] The move from the Latin conjugation in -ere to Spanish -ir is shared with Portuguese tingir, Galician tinguir and Catalan tenyir.^[4] Old Catalan still had tènyer, closer to the Latin type.^[6] The same verb is Italian tingere, French teindre and Occitan tenher.^[7]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *teng-, from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to make wet”); it is cognate with Ancient Greek τέγγω (téngō, “to make wet”) and Old High German thunkōn (“to dip”).^[8] Its variant tinguō arose by analogy with unguō (“to anoint”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a gloss in the Glosas Silenses of the second half of the 10th century.^[4][9] In the 13th century the verb already means “to dye”: the Libro de Alexandre says a woman tiñós las sobreçejas “dyed her eyebrows”, and the Moamín (1250) speaks of the madder con que tinnen los tintores “with which dyers dye”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses it for dyeing, for staining (lead tinne siempre “always stains”) and perhaps for wetting.^[10] Nebrija gives Latin inficio and tinguo for it.^[4] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as giving cloth a new colour by soaking it, adds staining, especially with blood, and in painting the toning down of one colour with a darker one.^[11] In 1843 the Academy added the figurative sense “to imbue with an opinion or feeling”, which it marked as old by 1899.^[12][13] The current dictionary keeps a figurative sense, giving something a character or appearance that alters it.^[5]

The verb is common to all periods.^[4] In the Americas it is recorded from 1516 in Puerto Rico, of dyed linen.^[14] Judeo-Spanish has it too.^[15]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – a gloss in the Glosas Silenses.^[4][9]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (early 15th-century copy) uses tiñós “dyed”.^[3]
• 1250 – the Moamín speaks of dyers' madder.^[3]
• c. 1250 – the Poridat de poridades has the old preterite tinxo.^[3]
• c. 1300 – the Gran Conquista de Ultramar.^[4]
• 1516 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[14]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines dyeing, staining and the painters' sense.^[11]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the figurative sense “to imbue”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dye or colour something, giving it a colour over the one it had; also pronominal, as in teñirse las canas “to dye one's grey hair”.^[5][1]
2. (figurative) To give something a character or appearance not its own, or that alters it: La nostalgia tiñe todas sus cartas.^[5]
3. (painting) To tone down a colour with darker ones.^[5]

Word family

• tinto
• teñidura
• reteñir
• teñible

Related words

• tintorería
• tintura
• tinte
• Latin tingō
• Catalan tenyir

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. teñir
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. teñir
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 466
5. ^ a b c d e 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. teñir
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 8, 428
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. tingere
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. teñir
10. ^ 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. teñir
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 251
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 695
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 953
14. ^ 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. teñir
15. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. teñir