tinto

Forms

tinto (feminine tinta, masculine plural tintos, feminine plural tintas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tīnctus (“dyed”), the past participle of tingō (“to wet, to dye”), and was at first the participle of teñir.^[2][3][4][1] Moliner notes that outside wine it survives only as a literary adjective meaning “stained”.^[5]

The same Latin participle gave Portuguese tinto, also said of wine, Old French teint and Old Occitan tenh (“dark”).^[6] Its feminine, Late Latin tincta, gave tinta “ink”, and tinte is a doublet of this word taken from Catalan or Mozarabic, as its final vowel shows.^[2][3][7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *teng-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to make wet”), with cognates in Ancient Greek τέγγω (téngō, “to wet”) and Old High German thunkōn (“to dip”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in the Buenos proverbios, of the middle of the 13th century, and he also finds it in Juan Ruiz.^[2][3] DEMel lists the spelling tynto in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250), and tinto in the Bocados de oro (c. 1250).^[9] In Alfonso X's Lapidario it is still the participle “dyed”, said of brass coloured with tutty.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1739) gives two senses: “dyed”, quoting Cervantes's Persiles for a man tinto with the blood of his wound, and wine of a dark, almost black colour, called tinto “by excellence”.^[11] Terreros glossed the wine in French as a deep red wine, and the Academy's 1884 edition added the grape, uva tinta.^[12][13] The DLE now defines the colour as dark red, and uses tinto alone as a noun for red wine.^[4]

In Colombia and Ecuador un tinto is a cup of black coffee, and in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela the adjective describes coffee made very strong.^[4][14] In Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua the adjective means “black”, and in Mexico tinto names the logwood and brazilwood trees, whose dye wood was once a major export.^[14][15] In Spain tinto de verano is red wine mixed with lemonade.^[5][1]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has the spelling tynto.^[9]
• c. 1250 – the Buenos proverbios have tinto.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it as the participle “dyed”.^[10][16]
• 1520 – a document from Cuba speaks of a cask of tinto, red wine.^[17]
• 1739 – Autoridades gives the senses “dyed” and “dark wine”.^[11]
• 1761 – a text from Bogotá names the colour café tinto.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin tinctus and the sense uva tinta.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a dark red colour.^[4][18]
2. Of wine or grapes: dark red, as in vino tinto and uva tinta.^[4][1]
3. (literary) dyed or stained: Volvió con las manos tintas en sangre.^[5][18]
4. (Dominican Republic, Venezuela) Of coffee: very strong.^[4][19]
5. (Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua) Black.^[14]

Noun

1. red wine: Pidió un tinto con la cena.^[4][1]
2. (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela) A cup of black coffee.^[4][14][1]
3. (Mexico) The logwood or brazilwood tree and its dye wood.^[15]

Word family

• tinto de verano
• retinto

Related words

• teñir
• tinta
• tinte
• tintura
• Latin tīnctus
• Portuguese tinto

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 5, 466
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. teñir
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. tinto
5. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tinto
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. tinctus
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 781
8. ^ 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 Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. tinto
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. 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, 278
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 639
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1027
14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. tinto
15. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 1050
16. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. tinto
17. ^ 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. tinto
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tinto
19. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. tinto