pintor

Forms

pintor m (plural pintores, feminine pintora, feminine plural pintoras)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling pyntor in 1393.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinctor (“painter”), the classical Latin pictor remade with the ⟨n⟩ of the verb pingō (“to paint”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Nascentes and Aurélio see the influence of the Portuguese verb pintar in it, and Machado derives the noun from that verb.^[6][7][2]

The same Vulgar Latin noun is Galician pintor, Spanish pintor, Catalan pintor, Occitan pintor and French peintre, while Italian pittore continues the classical form.^[5][8][9] The Latin noun is formed from the verb with the agent suffix -tor.^[10][1] The verb goes back to a nasal present of Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“to mark, paint”), the root of Ancient Greek ποικίλος (poikílos, “many-coloured”) too.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century: cantiga 74 tells of o pintor que o demo quisera matar, “the painter whom the devil wanted to kill”, and cantiga 306 praises a painter as tan bon maestre, “so good a master”.^[12] Houaiss and Cunha also date the word to the 13th century;^[2][3][12] Machado's first date had been 1550.^[2][3][12]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant a painter of pictures since the cantigas, and the Crónica Troiana uses it as well.^[12] Bluteau distinguished the practical from the theoretical painter.^[13] The old Caldas Aulete has pintor de broxa, or plain pintor, for a workman who paints doors and walls.^[14]

Figurative senses followed: a writer who describes with exactness and colour, and, in Portugal, a fantasist, liar or cheat.^[2][7] In Beira and Trás-os-Montes the word names the first coloured grapes of a bunch, the sign that they have begun to ripen.^[15][16] In Brazil it is a name of a many-coloured bird, so called for its colours.^[17][6] The word passed into Tetum as pintór.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – pintor in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[12][2]
• 1393 – the spelling pyntor.^[2]
• c. 1430 – pintor in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso gives Latin pictor for it.^[19]
• 1611 – Barbosa enters it.^[20]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau distinguishes the practical and the theoretical painter.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as one who knows or practises painting.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A painter, an artist who paints pictures.^{[2][7][16][1]}
2. A person who paints as a trade, such as a house painter: pintor de paredes, pintor de liso.^[2][7][16]
3. (figurative) A writer who describes things with great exactness and colour.^[2][7][16]
4. (Portugal, informal) A fantasist, liar or trickster.^[2][7][15]
5. (Portugal, regional) The first colour that appears on grapes or olives as they begin to ripen.^[16][15][22]
6. (Portugal, popular, dated) The old hundred-escudo note.^[16]
7. (astronomy) The constellation Pictor of the southern sky.^[16]
8. (ornithology) A many-coloured bird, Tangara fastuosa.^[17]

Adjective

1. That paints.^[2][14]

Related words

• pintar
• pintura
• Latin pictor
• Galician pintor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pintor
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pintar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 399
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pintor
7. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pintor
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. peintre
9. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. pintor
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pictor
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. pintor
13. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pintor
14. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. pintor
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pintor
16. ^ a b c d e f g Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. pintor
17. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. pintor
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pintor
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pintor
20. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pintor
21. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 454
22. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. pintor