Etymology Dictionary

PAINT,  to colour, describe, depict.  (F.,—L.)   M.E. peinten, Chaucer, C. T. 11946, 11949, 11951; but the word must have been in use in very early times, as we find the derived words peintunge, painting, and peinture, a picture, in the Ancren Riwle, p. 392, l. 16, p. 242, l. 14.—O.F. peint, paint (mod. F. peint), pp. of peindre, paindre (mod. F. peindre), to paint.—Lat. pingere, to paint.   Allied to Skt. piṅj, to dye, colour; piṅjara, yellow, tawny.   β. The form of the root is PIG, to colour; perhaps allied to ✔PIK, to adorn, form, whence Skt. piç, to adorn, form, peças, an ornament, and Gk. ποικίλος, variegated.   See Fick, i. 145.   Der. paint, sb. (a late word), Dryden, to Sir Robert Howard, l. 8; paint-er, Romeo, i. 2. 41; paint-ing, in early use, M. E. peintunge, as above.   And see pict-ure, de-pict, pig-ment, pi-mento, or-pi-ment, or-pine.