Etymologically
Log in

pictus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 18:16. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɪk.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpik.tus][1]

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]

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