peintre

Forms

peintre m or f by sense (plural peintres)^[1] Old French nominative peintre, paintre, beside the oblique peintor, paintor, poentor and peignor.^[2][3][4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French peintre, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinctor, a remaking of Classical Latin pictor (“painter”) after the verb pingō (“to paint”).^[2][5][3][4] The French word continues the Latin nominative, an exceptional case in which the subject form won over the oblique: Old and Middle French also had peintor, from the accusative *pinctōrem, until the 15th century, and peignor, remade on the stem of peindre.^[3][4] Littré compares pâtre from pāstor.^[6]

The /n/ of the verb is shared by Occitan pintor, Catalan pintor, Spanish pintor and Portuguese pintor, while Italian pittore continues the classical form.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1165 in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, for an artist who paints;^[2] in 1260 Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers names the paintres among the Paris crafts.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Until 1688 the word named only the artist;^[3][2] La Bruyère then used it for a workman who covers surfaces with paint, a sense still missing from Furetière's dictionary in 1690.^[3][2] Modern usage separates the two by saying peintre en bâtiment for the second (1803).^[3][2] Since Montaigne (1588) it has also meant a writer who describes things vividly, a use that has aged.^[2][3]

Like other trade names, the word long had no feminine;^[3] peintresse is late and usually ironic.^[3] The classical language used peintre as a feminine noun for a painter's wife (1671) and then for a woman who paints (1785), and femme-peintre is recorded in 1787.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – First record, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[2]
• 1188 – The oblique form poentor is used by Aimon de Varennes.^[2]
• 1260 – Étienne Boileau writes paintres.^[2][3]
• 1588 – Montaigne uses it for a writer who describes vividly.^[2]
• 1671 – La Fontaine uses peintre as a feminine for a painter's wife.^[2]
• 1688 – La Bruyère uses it for a house painter.^[2][3]
• 1785 – Peintre is used of a woman artist.^[2]
• 1803 – Peintre en bâtiment is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A painter, an artist who paints pictures.^[8][9]
2. A painter and decorator, a workman who applies paint to surfaces; also peintre en bâtiment.^[8][9]
3. (figurative) A writer or artist who depicts things vividly.^[9][2]

Word family

• peintresse

Related words

• peindre
• peinture
• Latin pictor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 429b
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)