Etymologically
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pingo

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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
  • 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