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tincture

noun
/ˈtɪŋ(k)tʃə/UK/ˈtɪŋ(k)t͡ʃɚ/US

Etymology

The noun is derived from Late Middle English tincture (“a dye, pigment; a colour, hue, tint; process of colouring or dyeing; medicinal ointment or salve (perhaps one discolouring the skin); use of a medicinal tincture; (alchemy) transmutation of base metals into gold; ability to cause such transmutation; substance supposed to cause such transmutation”) [and other forms], borrowed from Latin tīnctūra (“act of dyeing”) + Middle English -ure (suffix indicating an action or a process and the means or result of that action or process). Tīnctūra is derived from tīnctus (“coloured, tinged; dipped in; impregnated with; treated”) + -tūra (suffix forming action nouns expressing activities or results); while tīnctus is the perfect passive participle of tingō (“to colour, dye, tinge; to dip (in), immerse; to impregnate (with); to moisten, wet; to smear”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to dip; to soak”). Doublet of tainture, teinture, and tinctura. The verb is derived from the noun.

  1. derived from *teng-✻ — “to dip; to soak”
  2. derived from -ure
  3. derived from tīnctūra — “act of dyeing”
  4. inherited from tincture — “a dye, pigment; a colour, hue, tint; process of colouring or dyeing; medicinal ointment or salve (perhaps one discolouring the skin); use of a medicinal tincture; (alchemy) transmutation of base metals into gold; ability to cause such transmutation; substance supposed to cause such transmutation”

Definitions

  1. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

    • [A]ll both men and vvomen paint or embroider their skinnes vvith Iron pennes, putting indelible tinctures thereunto.
    • 'Tis thus, ſays [André] Dacier, that vve lay a full Colour, vvhen the VVool has taken the vvhole Tincture, and drunk in as much of the Dye as it can receive.

  2. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    • tincture of iodine;   tincture of cannabis;   tincture of opium
    • Madame de Pompadour used tincture of cantharides to regain the love of Louis XV.

  3. To colour or stain (something) with, or as if with, a dye or pigment.

    • [T]his very River Nilus that runs novv into the Mediterranean is the River that vvill run tinctured with bloud three hundred years hence, though the vvater is not the ſame novv and then nor of the ſame Quality: […]
    • The VVater of theſe is like to that of Baden in Auſtria; it leaves a vvhite Sediment upon the Moſs and places it vvaſheth, and tinctureth metals black: […]
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Followed by with

      Followed by with: to add to or impregnate (something) with (a slight amount of) an abstract or (obsolete) physical quality; to imbue, to taint, to tinge.

      • Of fulgent beautie; but ſo pure a mind, / As if tinctur'd from Heaven, and ſo devin'd.
      • Chriſt dravveth my VVill into himſelf, and cloateth it vvith his Blood and Death, and tictureth it vvith the higheſt Tincture of the Divine Povver: Thus it is changed into an Angelical Image, and getteth a Divine Life.
      • The remainder, […] thus retreats, that is, by the continual appulſe of the Sap, is in part carried off into the Cortical Body back again, the Sap vvhereof it novv tinctures into good Aliment: […]

    2. To dissolve (a substance) in ethanol or some other solvent to produce a medicinal…

      To dissolve (a substance) in ethanol or some other solvent to produce a medicinal tincture.

      • Fill a glass jar full of plant matter, leaving an inch of space. (I prefer to tincture each herb separately and mix combinations as I need them.) Completely cover plants with 100-proof vodka, brandy, or vinegar and secure the lid tightly.

    3. To have a taint or tinge of some quality.

      • The portrait of the Author, prefixed, is engraved from a drawing by another of his friends, done from memory; it is like, but a likeneſs that tinctures of the prejudice of friendſhip.
      • Which one of the carefully chosen assessors, one white, one sufficiently tinctured to pass as black, was it who was speaking—both sat, either side of the judge, silent henchmen.

The neighborhood

Derived

rule of tincture, tincture of steel, Warburg's tincture, tincturation, tinctured, tincturing, untinctured

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at tincture. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01tincture02dye03color04composition05assembly06mechanism07chains08chain09metal

A definitional loop anchored at tincture. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at tincture

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA