English
portrait
Portrait comes from Middle French portraire ‘portray’, from Latin prōtrahō ‘to drag, pull, draw or bring forth or out (to…’, and ultimately from trahō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrahō‘to drag’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEprōtrahō‘to drag, pull, draw or bring forth or out (to a place)’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600portraire‘portray’
- Middle French, derivedc. 1400–1600portraictnominal use of past participle of portraire
- Englishearliest quotation 1579portrait
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrahō‘to drag’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEprōtrahō‘to drag, pull, draw or bring forth or out (to a place)’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600portraire‘portray’
- Middle French, derivedc. 1400–1600portraictnominal use of past participle of portraire
- Englishearliest quotation 1579portrait
Earliest quotation: 1579, Immeritô pseudonym; Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender: […]: “But all as in most exquisite pictures, they vse…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- ‘to run, to drag, to pull’
draw, draft, train, drag, retreat, extraction, contraction, abstraction, draught, retract, subtraction, entreat, abstractly, 48 more
through Latin trahō ‘to drag’
contract, treat, attractive, attraction, abstract, extract, distraction, traction, distract, tract, tram, trattoria, 36 more
Today it means
noun A painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin trahō / portrait