Etymology Dictionary

PAINTER,  a rope for mooring a boat.  (F.,—L.,—Gk.)   'Painter, a rope employed to fasten a boat;' Hawkesworth's Voyages, 1773, vol. i. p. xxix.   Corrupted (by assimilation to the ordinary sb. painter) from M.E. panter, a noose, esp. for catching birds; see Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, 131; Prompt. Parv. p. 381; spelt paunter, Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, p. 344.—O.F. pantiere, a kind of snare for birds, Roquefort; panthiere, 'a great swoop-net;' Cot.   Cf. Ital. pantiera, 'a kinde of tramell or fowling-net,' Florio; panthera, 'a net or haie to catch conies with, also a kind of flowing-net;' id.—Lat. panther, a hunting-net for catching wild beasts; cf. panthera, an entire capture.—Gk. πάθηρος, catching all; cf. πανθήρα, the whole booty (a very late word).—Gk. πᾶν, neut. of πᾶς, every; and θήρ, a wild beast; see Pan- and Deer.   ¶ The Irish painteir, Gael. painntear, a gin, snare, are forms of the same word; but may have been borrowed from French, as the M.E. word occurs as early as the reign of Edw. II.   It is remarkable that, in America, a panther is also called a painter; see Cooper, The Pioneers, cap. xxviii.