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tinta

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word tinta

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin tingō

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈt͡ʃĩ.tɐ/[1]
  • Portugal: /ˈtĩ.tɐ/[1]

Forms

tinta f (plural tintas)[1]

Etymology

Houaiss and Nascentes take it as from Portuguese tinto (“dyed”), the feminine of the adjective used as a noun, and Nascentes expressly rejects a descent from Late Latin.[2][3] Wiktionary, the DLP and Michaelis derive it instead from Latin tincta (“dyed”), the feminine past participle of tingō (“to wet, dye”), and so does Nascentes's fuller dictionary of 1955.[1][4][5][6] In Medieval Latin the same form meant “ink”.[7] The adjective itself is from the Latin past participle, written Old Galician-Portuguese tynto in the 13th century.[8][9]

The corresponding nouns are Spanish tinta, Italian tinta and French teinte.[6]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to make wet”); its cognates are Ancient Greek τέγγω (téngō, “to make wet”) and Old High German dunkōn (“to immerse”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, in the sense “ink”: one cantiga says that even if the starry sky were parchment and the whole sea ink (se purgamẽo foss' o ceo estrelado / e o mar todo tinta), and another speaks of something far blacker than pitch or ink.[11] A cantiga collected in Universo Cantigas plays on essa tinta / mal pinta “that ink paints badly”.[12]

Semantic evolution

Writing ink is the first sense in the early dictionaries: Cardoso (1569), Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) gloss the word with Latin atramentum, and Barbosa adds shoemakers' tinta.[13][14][15] Bluteau (1712–1728) says there are many kinds, the commonest being the ink we write with, and gives its recipe of vitriol, galls, alum and gum arabic; painters' tintas are ground in oil or kept in water.[16] Morais (1789) defines it as a coloured liquid for dyeing and writing, and records meia tinta “half-tint” and fazer-se de melhor tinta “to become more polished”.[17] Vieira (1871) adds tomar muita tinta “to take liberties”.[18]

The modern dictionaries put paint first, then ink and dye.[2][19] The plural took the figurative sense “traces, a smattering”, and the reduced tinta, for uva tinta, names several grape varieties with deeply coloured juice.[2][19][20] Silva Bastos (1912) records estar-se nas tintas “not to care” and an Azorean sense, the female genitals, which Houaiss dates to 1899.[21][2]

The word was borrowed into Malay as tinta, and Indonesian took it from Malay.[1] It also passed into Nheengatu, which formed from it a verb meaning “to paint”.[22]

Timeline

  • 13th century, second half – tinta “ink” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[11][2]
  • c. 1430 – tinta in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).[23]
  • 1569 – Cardoso glosses the word as Latin atramentum “ink”.[13]
  • 1600 – first record of tinteiro, in the phrase ficar no tinteiro.[24]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes writing ink and painters' paints.[16]
  • 1789 – Morais records meia tinta.[17]
  • 1899 – first record of the Azorean sense.[2]
  • 1912 – Silva Bastos records estar-se nas tintas.[21]

Meanings

Noun

  1. paint: a substance of a pigment and a binder that adheres to the surface it is spread on.[2][19][1]
  2. ink; any coloured liquid or paste used for writing, printing or dyeing: Escreveu a carta com tinta azul.[2][19][1]
  3. The colouring matter in certain fruits and animals, such as grapes or squid.[2][25]
  4. A hue or shade; colour: as tintas do pôr do sol.[2][19]
  5. (painting) The strength given to the colours.[2]
  6. (figurative, usually in the plural) Traces, a smattering: tinha umas tintas de francês.[2][19]
  7. (viticulture, Portugal) A name for several grape varieties with deeply coloured juice.[2][20][26]
  8. (Portugal, informal) money.[2]
  9. (Azores, vulgar) The female genitals, the vagina.[2][21][1]

Word family

  • tinteiro
  • troca-tintas

Usage notes

Estar-se nas tintas means “not to care at all” in Portugal, and tinta simpática is invisible ink, which shows only when treated with a reagent.[27][20][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tinta
  3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tinta
  4. ^ 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. tinta
  5. ^ 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. tinta
  6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 495
  7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tinto
  9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tinto
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b 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. tinta
  12. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. tinta
  13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tinta
  14. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tinta
  15. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tinta
  16. ^ 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. tinta
  17. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 459
  18. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 728
  19. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tinta
  20. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8982
  21. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. tinta
  22. ^ Avila, Marcel Twardowsky (2021), Proposta de dicionário nheengatu-português, PhD thesis, Universidade de São Paulo
  23. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tinta
  24. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tinteiro
  25. ^ 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. tinta
  26. ^ 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
  27. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tinta
Cite this entry

“Tinta.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/tinta. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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