Etymograph

English

taint

Taint comes from Old French teint, and goes back to Latin tinctum.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtinctum
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400teint
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600teint
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604taint

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history not traced here.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtinctum
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400teint
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600teint
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604taint

Earliest quotation: c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice: “His unkindness may defeat my life, / But never…”

Every English word from Latin tinctum

Another origin of taint

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400atteinte‘a blow, stroke’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500taynt
  3. Englishtodaytaint

Today it means

noun A contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin tinctum / taint

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