English
tinction
Tinction comes from Latin tinctiō ‘a soaking, dipping’, from tingō ‘to wet, moisten, dip (in), impregnate (with)’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teng-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teng-1‘to soak, dip, make wet’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tengō1reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtingō2‘to wet, moisten, dip (in), impregnate (with)’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtinctiō3‘a soaking, dipping’
- Englishearliest quotation 1888tinction3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin tingo
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin tinctio
- 3 Wiktionary, English tinction
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1888, Frank Seaver Billings, Swine plague: “[…] not color as well as at others, even…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teng-Wiktionary, Latin tingo‘to soak, dip, make wet’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tengōWiktionary, Latin tingoreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtingōWiktionary, Latin tinctio‘to wet, moisten, dip (in), impregnate (with)’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtinctiōWiktionary, English tinction‘a soaking, dipping’
- Englishearliest quotation 1888tinctionWiktionary, English tinction. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1888, Frank Seaver Billings, Swine plague: “[…] not color as well as at others, even…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *teng- ‘to soak, dip, make wet’
think, thought, thank, dunk, 21 more
through Latin tingō ‘to wet, moisten, dip (in), impregnate (with)’
Today it means
noun A stain; a preparation for staining.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “tinction”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin tingo, Latin tinctio. 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 *teng- / tinction