Skip to content

tincture

noun

  1. extracted organic material in alcohol
L227944 on Wikidata ↗

verb

  1. (cause to) tint, tinge, color lightly
L333269 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈtɪŋ(k)tʃə/ / /ˈtɪŋktjʊə/ / /ˈtɪŋ(k)t͡ʃɚ/

noun

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.

  1. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

    [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.

    [A]ll both men and vvomen paint or embroider their skinnes vvith Iron pennes, putting indelible tinctures thereunto.

  2. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

    '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.

  3. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

    [A]fter the firſt comming of Hengiſt they had liued here C.L. yeers by the cõmon account vvithout tincture of true religion: […]

    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.

  4. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
  5. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

    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.

  6. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

    a tincture of orange peel

    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.

  7. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

    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.

  8. Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

    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, […]

  9. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    tincture of iodine;   tincture of cannabis;   tincture of opium

    Madame de Pompadour used tincture of cantharides to regain the love of Louis XV.

  10. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    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.

  11. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    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, […]

  12. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    [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; […]

    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: […]

  13. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    [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; […]

    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.

verb

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.

  1. To colour or stain (something) with, or as if with, a dye or pigment.

    [T]hey are rich habilimented, their heads rounded vvith a golden caule: their cheekes tinctured vvith Vermillion, their noſes and eares hung vvith Ievvels of price and bigneſſe, and about their faces (tied to the chin) a rope of orient pearle of exceeding value, if not counterfeit: […]

    [T]his very River Nilus that runs novv into the Mediterranean is the River that vvill run tinctured with bloud three hundred years hence, though the vvater is not the ſame novv and then nor of the ſame Quality: […]

  2. Followed by with: to add to or impregnate (something) with (a slight amount of) an abstract or (obsolete) physical quality; to imbue, to taint, to tinge.

    Of fulgent beautie; but ſo pure a mind, / As if tinctur'd from Heaven, and ſo devin'd.

    Chriſt dravveth my VVill into himſelf, and cloateth it vvith his Blood and Death, and tictureth it vvith the higheſt Tincture of the Divine Povver: Thus it is changed into an Angelical Image, and getteth a Divine Life.

  3. To dissolve (a substance) in ethanol or some other solvent to produce a medicinal tincture.

    Fill a glass jar full of plant matter, leaving an inch of space. (I prefer to tincture each herb separately and mix combinations as I need them.) Completely cover plants with 100-proof vodka, brandy, or vinegar and secure the lid tightly.

  4. To have a taint or tinge of some quality.

    The portrait of the Author, prefixed, is engraved from a drawing by another of his friends, done from memory; it is like, but a likeneſs that tinctures of the prejudice of friendſhip.

    Which one of the carefully chosen assessors, one white, one sufficiently tinctured to pass as black, was it who was speaking—both sat, either side of the judge, silent henchmen.