pictus

Forms

pictus (feminine picta, neuter pictum); first/second-declension participle^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin pingō (“to paint”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces pingō to Proto-Italic *ping-e/o- (“to paint”) and Proto-Indo-European *pi-n-ḱ- (“to paint, adorn”), a nasal present.^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ποικίλος (poikílos, “multicoloured”) and Lithuanian piẽšti (“to draw”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Accius, of the spotted skins of wild beasts;^[2] Köbler's first source is Cicero.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means painted, as Virgil's painted ships, and tabula picta is a painting.^[2] The poets use it of natural things with colours or markings, and Cicero uses it figuratively of an ornate style, saying that nothing could be more ornate than Lysias.^[2] Of fabrics it means embroidered in colour, as Cicero's little embroidered toga.^[2] English pinto goes back through Spanish to a Vulgar Latin variant ⟨*pinctus⟩, and pint probably to ⟨*pincta⟩, from the feminine, after a painted mark on a vessel showing the measure.^[6]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of spotted skins.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of ornate style and of an embroidered toga.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of painted ships.^[2][5]
• late 3rd century AD – the Picts are first called Picti.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Painted, coloured; of natural things, coloured or marked;^[2][1] tabula picta, a painting.^[2][1]
2. Of style, ornate.^[2]
3. Of fabrics, embroidered in colour.^[2]

Related words

• pingō
• pictor
• pictūra

Usage notes

The Late Latin name Picti, the Picts, is usually taken as “painted ones”, perhaps a soldiers' nickname, but Etymonline thinks it more likely a Celtic tribal name that the Romans reshaped after this word.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com