Etymograph

English

paint

Paint comes from Old French peint, the participle of peindre, from Latin pingō ‘to paint’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- ‘to mark’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peyḱ-1‘to hew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pinéḱti1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pingō1reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpingō1‘to paint’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400peindre1‘to paint’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400peint1‘painted’
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400peintier1‘to paint’
  8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500peynten1‘to decorate or adorn with drawing or painting’
  9. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596paint1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English paint
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour’s Lost: “Cuckoo buds of yellow hue / Do paint the…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peyḱ-Wiktionary, English paint‘to hew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pinéḱtiWiktionary, English paintreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pingōWiktionary, English paintreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpingōWiktionary, English paint‘to paint’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400peindreWiktionary, English paint‘to paint’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400peintWiktionary, English paint‘painted’
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400peintierWiktionary, English paint‘to paint’
  8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500peyntenWiktionary, English paint‘to decorate or adorn with drawing or painting’
  9. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596paintWiktionary, English paint. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour’s Lost: “Cuckoo buds of yellow hue / Do paint the…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- ‘to paint, mark, color’

fish, file, feud, piscina, 25 more

through Proto-Italic *pingō

pinto, 7 more

through Latin pingō ‘to paint’

picture, depiction, depict, pictorial, pigment, pint, pimento, 8 more

Today it means

noun A substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or adds colour to an object or surface to which it has been applied.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “paint”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- / paint

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