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portrait

Etymology and origin of the French word portrait

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Erec
Ultimate origin
Latin (trahō)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /pɔʁ.tʁɛ/[1]

Forms

portrait m (plural portraits)[1] Old French portret and pourtrait (about 1175); portrait from the 13th century;[2][3][4] portraict and pourtraict in the 16th century.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is the past participle of the old verb portraire (“to draw, depict”) (about 1130), used as a noun.[2][5][6][7] The verb is formed from pour, used as an intensive prefix, and traire “to draw”, in its old special sense “to sketch”, which tirer also had: compare “tirer le portrait”.[2][6] Wiktionary traces the verb to Latin prōtrahō (“to draw forth”).[1] The verb was called dated by the 17th-century dictionaries and went out of use in the 18th century.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Chrétien de Troyes's Erec (about 1170) portret means a drawing or representation.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The word seems first to have meant any drawing or pictorial representation, a sense still found in some writers.[2] With the flowering of the genre it came to mean the representation of a particular person by painting or engraving (1538, Estienne), and, from 1550 (Du Bellay) a description of a person in words.[5][2] Rabelais (1536) uses it for an image or likeness, and Corneille (1635) for a perfect likeness of someone.[5][4] In Rabelais (1552) it also means the face.[5]

Richelet records the portrait chargé, a caricature, in 1680; the portrait-charge is in the Goncourts (1867), the police portrait parlé in 1963 and the portrait-robot, an identikit picture, in 1964.[5] Derivatives include portraitiste (1693) and portraiturer (1872).[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1130 – The verb portraire.[2]
  • c. 1170 – Portret in Chrétien's Erec.[5]
  • 1538 – Estienne: a painted or engraved likeness.[5]
  • 1550 – Du Bellay: a portrait in words.[5]
  • 1635 – Corneille: a perfect likeness.[5][4]
  • 1680 – Richelet: portrait chargé.[5]
  • 1693 – Portraitiste.[6]
  • 1964 – Portrait-robot.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A portrait, a representation of a person, especially the face, by drawing, painting, engraving or photography: portrait en pied.[8][1]
  2. A description of a person or thing in words: faire le portrait de quelqu'un.[1][5]
  3. A perfect likeness of someone.[5][4]
  4. (familiar) The face: refaire le portrait à quelqu'un.[5][1]
  5. Portrait-robot: an identikit picture.[5][8]
  6. (printing, computing) Portrait format, as opposed to landscape.[1]

Word family

  • portraitiste
  • portraiturer
  • portraire
  • autoportrait
  • traire
  • English portrait

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
  6. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 181a
  8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
Cite this entry

“Portrait.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/portrait. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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