tincture
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɪŋ(k)tʃə/
ipa: /ˈtɪŋktjʊə/
ipa: /ˈtɪŋ(k)t͡ʃɚ/
rhymes: -ɪŋktʃə(ɹ)
Forms: form: tinctures
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.
Senses: examples: text: [O]ur daintie dames and fine ladies have begun to ſet their mind upon this colour [amber], and have placed it in the third ranke of rich tincture: vvhereby vve may ſee there is no ſuperfluitie and diſorder in the vvorld, but it hath a pretence and cloake of ſome precious name or other.
ref: 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXVII.] Of the True Originall and Generation of Amber. The Sundrie Kinds thereof. The Exercise and Superfluitie of People, as Touching Amber. The Medicinable Properties that It Affordeth. Of Lincurium, and the Vertues that It hath in Physicke.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 609:
text: [A]ll both men and vvomen paint or embroider their skinnes vvith Iron pennes, putting indelible tinctures thereunto.
ref: 1625, [Samuel] Purchas, “The Voyage of Nicolo di Conti a Venetian, to the Indies, Mangi, Cambalu and Quinsai, with Some Observations of Those Places”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 3rd part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 159:
text: '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.
ref: 1693, John Dryden, “[The Dedication]”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page xxi:
text: I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe. The Propoſition and Demonſtration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with Ink compoſed of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to ſwallow upon a faſting Stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but Bread and Water. As the Wafer digeſted, the Tincture mounted to his Brain, bearing the Propoſition along with it.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 78:
glosses: Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
A pigment or other substance that colours or dyes; specifically, a pigment used as a cosmetic.
examples: text: 'Tis not a Sett of Features, or Complexion, / The Tincture of a Skin, that I admire. / Beauty ſoon grovvs familiar to the Lover, / Fades in his Eye, and palls upon the Senſe.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page 12:
glosses: Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
A colour or tint, especially if produced by a pigment or something which stains; a tinge.
examples: text: [A]fter the firſt comming of Hengiſt they had liued here C.L. yeers by the cõmon account vvithout tincture of true religion: […]
ref: 1612, [John Selden], “The Eleuenth Song. Illustrations.”, in Michael Drayton, edited by [John Selden], Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 184:
text: Men are oppressed with regard to their way of speaking and acting, instead of having their thought bent upon what they should do or say; and by that means bury a capacity for great things, by their fear of failing in indifferent things. This, perhaps, cannot be called affectation; but it has some tincture of it, at least so far, as that their fear of erring in a thing of no consequence, argues they would be too much pleased in performing it.
ref: 1711 April 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “FRIDAY, April 13, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 38; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 263:
text: Ernst August has some tincture of soldiership at this time (Marlborough Wars, and the like), as all his kindred had; […]
ref: 1858, Thomas Carlyle, “Father’s Mother”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book I, page 43:
text: His [Plato's] divergence from the Pythagoreans in making the One and the Numbers separate from things, and his introduction of the Forms, were due to his inquiries in the region of definitory formulae (for the earlier thinkers had no tincture of dialectic), […]
ref: 1908, Aristotle, chapter VI, in W[illiam] D[avid] Ross, transl., edited by J[ohn] A[lexander] Smith and W. D. Ross, Metaphysica (The Works of Aristotle Translated into English; VIII), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, book I (Α), Bekker number 987ᵇ, lines 30–34:
glosses: Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
A slight addition of a thing to something else; a shade, a touch, a trace.
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
A hue or pattern used in the depiction of a coat of arms.
examples: text: This ſtone [“cyanos” or chrysoprase] is very apt to bee counterfeited, and eſpecially by tincture: the invention vvhereof is aſcribed to a king of Ægypt, vvho vvas highly honoured for beeing the firſt that gave a colour to it.
ref: 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXVII.] Sundry Kinds of Iaspers.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 620:
glosses: Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
The act of colouring or dyeing.
examples: text: a tincture of orange peel
text: And yet the iron here vvrought, is not in every place of like goodneſſe, but generally more brittle than is the Spaniſh iron, vvhether it bee by the nature, or tincture and temper thereof.
ref: 1610, William Camden, “Sussex”, in Philémon Holland, transl., Britain, or A Chorographicall Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press for] Georgii Bishop & Ioannis Norton, →OCLC, page 306:
text: Her look, her voice, her gesture, and whole behaviour is truly feminine. A goodness mixed with fear gives a tincture to all her behaviour.
ref: 1711 August 26 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “WEDNESDAY, August 15, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 144; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 255:
text: The greatest genius which runs through the Arts and Sciences, takes a kind of tincture from them, and falls unavoidably into imitation.
ref: 1711 September 14 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, September 3, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 160; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 329:
text: All Manners take a tincture from our own, / Or come diſcolour'd thro' our Paſſions ſhovvn, / Or Fancy's beam inlarges, multiplies, / Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thouſand dyes.
ref: 1735, Alexander Pope, “Epistle I. To Sir Richard Temple Lord Viscount Cobham.”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 48:
text: It is commonly ſaid, that the life of a good writer is beſt read in his works; which can ſcarce fail to receive a peculiar tincture from his temper, manners, and habits: […]
ref: 1763, Patrick Murdoch, “An Account of the Life and Writings of Mr James Thomson”, in James Thomson, edited by [George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton], The Works of James Thomson, […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], published 1762, →OCLC, page i:
text: [I]n England the Saxon language received little or no tincture from the Welsh; and it seems, even among the lowest people, to have continued a dialect of pure Teutonick to the time, in which it was itself blended with the Norman.
ref: 1760, Edmund Burke, “An Essay towards an Abridgment of the English History. […]”, in [Walker King], editor, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, new edition, volume X, London: […] [R. Gilbert] for C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], published 1826, →OCLC, book IIbook II, chapter I (The Entry and Settlement of the Saxons, and Their Conversion to Christianity), page 255:
text: Regular army there was none. Every man had a slight tincture of soldiership, and scarcely any man more than a slight tincture.
ref: 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 35:
glosses: Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
A slight physical quality other than colour (especially taste), or an abstract quality, added to something; a tinge.
examples: text: To offend againſt ſo gracious a Patron, vvould add a Tincture to our Diſobedience; yet ſuch is the Iniquity of our Condition, that vve are forced to defer our Gratitude.
ref: a. 1659 (date written), John Cleveland, “To the Earl of Holland, then Chancellor of the University of Cambridge”, in J[ohn] L[ake], S[amuel] D[rake], editors, The Works of John Cleveland, Containing His Poems, Orations, Epistles, […], London: […] R. Holt, for Obadiah Blagrave, […], published 1687, →OCLC, page 114:
glosses: Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
A small flaw; a blemish, a stain.
examples: text: Rollo ſonne of a Daniſh Potentate, […] made tranſmigration into France, and there, after ſome martiall diſcords, honored in holy tincture of Chriſtianity vvith the name of Robert, […]
ref: 1612, [John Selden], “The Fourth Song. Illustrations.”, in Michael Drayton, edited by [John Selden], Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 73:
topics: Christianity
glosses: Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
Synonym of baptism.
synonyms: word: baptism
examples: text: tincture of iodine;   tincture of cannabis;   tincture of opium
text: Madame de Pompadour used tincture of cantharides to regain the love of Louis XV.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 56:
glosses: Scientific and alchemical senses.
A medicine consisting of one or more substances dissolved in ethanol or some other solvent.
qualifier: pharmacy
examples: text: Weathers made them all have just one little tincture at his expense and promised to meet them later on at Mulligan's in Poolbeg Street.
ref: 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Counterparts”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 115:
glosses: Scientific and alchemical senses.
A (small) alcoholic drink.
synonyms: word: adult beverage
word: alcohol
word: bevvy
word: booze
word: carouse
word: drink
raw_tags: in context
word: grog
word: libation
word: liquor
word: lush
word: nightcap
word: potation
word: potent potable
word: sauce
word: shot
word: strong-water
word: tiddly
word: tincture
word: tipple
examples: text: For vvhat is ſilke but eu'n a Quinteſſence, / Made vvithout hands beyond al humane ſenſe? / A quinteſſence? nay vvel it may be call'd, / A deathleſſe tincture, ſent vs from the skies, / VVhoſe colour ſtands, vvhose gloſſe is ne're appalld, […]
ref: 1599, T[homas] M[offett], The Silkewormes, and Their Flies: […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Nicholas Ling, […], →OCLC, pages 67–68:
topics: alchemy
pseudoscience
glosses: Scientific and alchemical senses.
An immaterial substance or spiritual principle which was thought capable of being instilled into physical things; also, the essence or spirit of something.
qualifier: obsolete except historical
examples: text: [T]he pureſt part [of the sap], as moſt apt and ready, recedes, vvith its due Tinctures, from the ſaid Cortical Body, to the Lignous. VVhich Lignous Body likevviſe ſuper-inducing its ovvn proper Tinctures into the ſaid Sap; […]
ref: 1671 December 17 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1672), Nehemiah Grew, “Of the Root”, in The Anatomy of Vegetables Begun. […], London: […] Spencer Hickman, printer to the R[oyal] Society, […], →OCLC, pages 52–53:
text: And I do perſvvade my ſelf, that the common Devv exhaled from ſome ſorts of Herbs or VVeeds, but eſpecially from the common Graſs, carries vvith it the Seminal Tincture of the Herb, vvhich being again deſcended by Devvs or Rain upon the bare and naked Earth, re-produceth the ſame Species: […]
ref: a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “Concerning Vegetables, and Especially Insecta Animalia, whether Any of Them are Sponte Orta, or Arise Not rather Ex Præexistente Semine”, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC, section III, page 267:
topics: alchemy
pseudoscience
glosses: Scientific and alchemical senses.
A material essence thought to be capable of extraction from a substance.
qualifier: obsolete except historical
examples: text: [C]ome forth, / And taſt the ayre of Palaces, eate, drinke / The toyles of Empricks, and their boaſted practiſe: / Tincture of Pearle, an Corall, Gold, and Amber; […]
ref: 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i:
text: VVhy, by his skill, / Of vvhich he has left you the inheritance, / Here in a pot: this little gally pot, / Of tincture, high roſe tincture.
ref: 1625 January 19 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [Ben Jonson], The Fortunate Isles and Their Union. […], [London: s.n.], published [1625], →OCLC, signature [A4], verso:
text: 'Tis not unlikely that Grain may afford its Tincture, and that excellent Beer and Ale may be made thereof vvithout malting, but I ſhall leave theſe things to experience.
ref: 1708, J[ohn] Mortimer, “Some Further Observations Relating to Malt”, in The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC, book IX, page 279:
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Scientific and alchemical senses.
The part of a substance thought to be essential, finer, and/or more volatile, which could be extracted in a solution; also, the process of obtaining this.
qualifier: obsolete except historical
Derived terms: rule of tincture
tincture of steel
Warburg's tincture
Related terms: word: taint
word: tinct
word: tinction
word: tinctorial
word: tinctorially
word: tinctorious
word: tinctumutant
word: tint