tainture
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Perhaps taint + -ure; perhaps from Middle French tainture (“dye; dyeing; tincture”). Doublet of tincture.[1]
Noun[edit]
tainture (plural taintures)
- (obsolete) Dirtiness; uncleanliness; contamination, tainting.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest,
And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.
- 1637, Joseph Hall, The Remedy of Prophanenesse, or, Of the True Sight and Feare of the Almighty[1], London: Nathanael Butter, Book 1, Section 11, p. 83:
- But, woe is me, other creatures are fraile too, none but man is sinfull; our soule is not more excellent, than this tainture of it, is odious, and deadly […]
- (Can we date this quote?), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Humorous Lieutenant”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene vi, page 37:
- Dem[etrius]. Now Princes, your demands?
Sel[eucus]. Peace, if it may be
Without the too much tainture of our honour:
References[edit]
- ^ Etymology and history of “teinture”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.