picta

Forms

picta (third-person singular present pictează, past participle pictat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Romanian pictor and pictură, according to DEX, NODEX, MDA2, the DLR, Tiktin and MDN.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The noun is a loan from Latin pictor (“painter”), with Italian pittore as a second model; the Latin noun is formed on pingō (“to paint”).^[7][8][9] Ciorănescu instead reconstructs Vulgar Latin *pictare of the 19th century, a doublet of the inherited păta.^[10] Wiktionary takes it from Italian pittare, with the /kt/ of Latin forms such as pictus and pictūra.^[1] The Italian verb is a southern word from the same Vulgar Latin verb, formed on the past participle of the Latin verb for “paint”; while Spanish pintar and Portuguese pintar go back to *pinctāre, with the /n/ of the present tense.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Bobb's dictionary of 1822, which also has an older verb pictura.^[5] MDA2 dates it from Barcianu's dictionary.^[3] The sense is “to paint, represent in colours”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The noun came first: pictor “painter” is recorded in 1795.^[8][7] The verb pictura, made on the noun pictură, is old and gave way to picta.^[5][3] Besides painting an image, picta means to cover or decorate a surface with paintings, and figuratively to portray people or scenes in words.^[2][12] The reflexive a se picta “to put on heavy make-up” is colloquial and pejorative, said of women.^[2][3][13] It shares the literary field with the older zugrăvi.^[2]

Timeline

• 1795 – pictor “painter”.^[8][7]
• 1822 – picta and the older pictura in Bobb's dictionary.^[5]
• 1900 – in Barcianu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1955–1957 – the figurative sense “to portray in words” in the DLRLC.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To paint: to represent an image or a model on canvas, paper, glass and so on with a brush and colours.^[2][3][1]
2. (intransitive) To paint, to practise painting.^[2][14]
3. To cover or decorate a surface or object with paintings.^[2][3]
4. (reflexive, colloquial, pejorative) Of women: to wear heavy make-up.^[2][13]
5. (figurative) To depict people, situations or events vividly in words.^[2][12]

Related words

• pictor
• pictură
• păta
• zugrăvi

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 814
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 370
4. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. picta
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. picta
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. picta
7. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 371
8. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pictor
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. picta
11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 409
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. picta
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. picta