pingo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈpɪŋ.ɡoː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpiŋ.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

pingō (present infinitive pingere, perfect active pīnxī, supine pī̆ctum); third conjugation^[1] An inscription spells the perfect pinxsit.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ping-e/o- (“to paint”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pi-n-ḱ- (“to paint, adorn”), a nasal present of the root *peyḱ- (“to paint, adorn”).^[3][1]

Cognate with Sanskrit पिंशति (piṃśáti, “adorns, carves”), Ancient Greek ποικίλος (poikílos, “many-coloured”), Lithuanian piẽšti (“to draw”), Old Church Slavonic пьсати (pĭsati, “to write”) and Old High German fēh (“many-coloured”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Naevius onwards.^[3][4] In Plautus two girls complain that they never stop being polished, smoothed, painted and made up.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant to paint or colour something, and to paint a picture, as Cicero's painter Zeuxis, who painted many panels and a picture of Helen.^[2] It was used of colouring by other means, as Lucretius' seasons that “painted” the grass with flowers, and of embroidering.^[2][5]

It meant to depict, and figuratively to colour a speech or poem with ornament, as Cicero says.^[2] Medieval texts also used it for writing.^[6] It survives as Italian pingere and Old French peindre, the source of English paint.^[1][7] English picture and pigment come from its derivatives pictura and pigmentum.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for painting the face.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of flowers colouring the grass.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for painting pictures and for rhetorical colouring.^[2][4]
• mid-13th century – English paint is first recorded.^[7]
• early 15th century – English picture comes from pictura.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To paint, colour.^[2][5]
2. To paint (a picture); to depict.^[2][1]
3. To decorate with colours; to embroider.^[2][5]
4. To adorn, embellish (speech).^[2][1]

Word family

• appingo
• compingō
• dēpingō
• expingō
• impingō
• pictilis
• pictor
• pictūra
• pīgmentum
• repingō
• superpingo
• suppingō

Related words

• English paint
• English picture
• English pigment

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 j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com