portrait

See also: Portrait

English

The Mona Lisa, a portrait.

Portrait layout

Alternative forms

• pourtraict (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French portraict, pourtraict, nominal use of the past participle of portraire (“portray”), from Latin prōtrahō (< pro- + traho).

Compare typologically English drawing.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːtɹeɪt/, /ˈpɔːtɹɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɹtɹət/, (rare) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɹtɹeɪt/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊɹtɹət/; (rare) /ˈpoʊɹtɹeɪt/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpoətɹɪt/; (rare) /ˈpoətɹeɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

portrait (countable and uncountable, plural portraits)

1. (countable) A painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.
   • a. 1792, Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts:

     In portraits, the grace, and, we may add, the likeness, consists more in the general air than in the exact similitude of every feature.

2. (countable, figuratively) An accurate depiction of a person, a mood, etc.

   The author painted a good portrait of urban life in New York in his latest book.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 232–233:

     She showed me her portrait, written by herself. I only remember what she states of her mouth, which, she says, was not only beautiful and red, but had a thousand little natural airs and graces not to be found in any other mouth. Oh, I must not forget her figure, which, she assured the reader, was the best-made and the finest that could be seen: nothing could be more regular, more graceful, or more easy.

3. (computing, printing) A print orientation where the vertical sides are longer than the horizontal sides.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “print mode or selection”): landscape
• (antonym(s) of “print mode or selection”): profile

Derived terms

• Faiyum portrait
• Fayum portrait
• mummy portrait
• pen portrait
• photo-portrait
• portraitist
• portraitor
• self-portrait
• swagger portrait

Related terms

• portray
• trait

Translations

painting of a person

• Afrikaans: portret sg
• Albanian: portret (sq) m
• Arabic: صُورَة (ar) f (ṣūra), بُورْتْرِيَّة f (burtriyya)
• Armenian: դիմանկար (hy) (dimankar), պատկեր (hy) (patker)
• Asturian: retratu m
• Azerbaijani: şəkil (az), portret
• Basque: argazkia (eu)
• Belarusian: партрэ́т m (partrét)
• Bengali: প্রতিকৃতি (bn) (protikriti)
• Breton: poltred (br) m
• Bulgarian: портре́т (bg) m (portrét)
• Burmese: ပုံတူကား (my) (pumtuka:)
• Catalan: retrat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 肖像 (zh) (xiàoxiàng)

• Czech: portrét (cs) m, podobizna f
• Danish: portræt (da) n, (archaic) kontrafej (da) n
• Dutch: portret (nl) n
• Erzya: чаманеявкс (čamanejavks)
• Esperanto: portreto
• Estonian: portree (et)
• Finnish: muotokuva (fi), potretti
• French: portrait (fr) m
• Galician: retrato m
• Georgian: სურათი (surati), პორტრეტი (ṗorṭreṭi)
• German: Portrait (de) n, Porträt (de) n
• Greek: προσωπογραφία (el) f (prosopografía), πορτραίτο (el) n (portraíto)
• Hawaiian: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: דְּיוֹקָן (he) m (dyokán)
• Hindi: चित्र (hi) m (citra), तस्वीर (hi) f (tasvīr)
• Hungarian: arckép (hu), portré (hu), képmás (hu)
• Indonesian: potret (id)
• Irish: portráid f
• Italian: ritratto (it) m
• Japanese: 画像 (ja) (がぞう, gazō), 肖像 (ja) (しょうぞう, shōzō)
• Kazakh: портрет (portret)
• Korean: 초상(肖像) (ko) (chosang), 초상화(肖像畫) (ko) (chosanghwa)
• Kyrgyz: портрет (ky) (portret)
• Latvian: portrets (lv) m
• Lithuanian: portretas m
• Luxembourgish: Portrait
• Macedonian: портре́т m (portrét)
• Malay: potret (ms)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хөрөг (mn) (xörög)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: portrett n, portrettmaleri n

  Nynorsk: portrett n

• Pashto: تصوير (ps) m (taswir)
• Persian: تصویر (fa) (tasvir), پرتره (fa) (portre)
• Plautdietsch: Petrett n
• Polish: portret (pl) m
• Portuguese: retrato (pt) m
• Romanian: portret (ro) n
• Russian: портре́т (ru) m (portrét), парсу́на (ru) f (parsúna)
• Sanskrit: चित्राकृति (sa) f (citrākṛti)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̀ртре̄т m

  Roman: pòrtrēt (sh) m

• Slovak: portrét m
• Slovene: portret (sl) m
• Spanish: retrato (es) m
• Swahili: picha (sw)
• Swedish: porträtt (sv) n, avbildning (sv) c
• Tagalog: ritrato
• Tahitian: hohoʻa
• Tajik: портрет (tg) (portret), тасвир (tg) (tasvir)
• Thai: ภาพเหมือน (pâap-mʉ̌ʉan)
• Turkish: portre (tr)
• Turkmen: portret
• Ukrainian: портре́т m (portrét)
• Urdu: تَصْوِیر (ur) f (tasvīr), چِتْر m (citra)
• Uyghur: پورترېت (portrët)
• Uzbek: portret (uz)
• Vietnamese: chân dung (vi)
• Volapük: pöträt (vo)
• Yiddish: פּאָרטרעט (portret)

an accurate depiction of a person, a mood, etc.

• Bulgarian: изображе́ние (bg) n (izobražénie)
• Catalan: retrat (ca) m
• Georgian: პორტრეტი (ṗorṭreṭi)
• German: Portrait (de) n, Porträt (de) n
• Greek: πορτραίτο (el) n (portraíto)
• Italian: ritratto (it) m
• Macedonian: опис m (opis), приказ m (prikaz), слика (mk) f (slika)
• Polish: portret (pl) m
• Romanian: portret (ro) n, descriere (ro) f
• Russian: изображе́ние (ru) n (izobražénije), описа́ние (ru) n (opisánije), портре́т (ru) m (portrét)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̀ртре̄т m

  Roman: pòrtrēt (sh) m

• Spanish: retrato (es) m
• Turkish: tasvir (tr)

print mode

• Bulgarian: вертика́лна ориента́ция f (vertikálna orientácija)
• Czech: na výšku, portrét (cs) m
• Dutch: staand (nl)
• French: portrait (fr) m
• German: Hochformat n
• Greek: κατακόρυφος (el) (katakóryfos) προσανατολισμός (el) (prosanatolismós) (εκτύπωσης-χαρτιού)
• Hungarian: álló (hu)
• Irish: portráid f
• Italian: ritratto (it) m
• Portuguese: retrato (pt) m
• Russian: портре́тная ориента́ция f (portrétnaja orijentácija)
• Turkish: portre (tr)

Verb

portrait (third-person singular simple present portraits, present participle portraiting, simple past and past participle portraited)

1. (obsolete) To portray; to draw.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

     But all as in most exquisite pictures, they vse to blaze and portrait, not only the daintie lineaments or beautie, but also round about it to shadowe the rude thickets and craggy clifts

   • 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 69:

     Methinkes y^e picture of S^t George fighting with y^e Dragon hath some resemblance of S^t Michael fighting with the Devil, who is pourtrated like a Dragon.

Adjective

portrait (not comparable)

1. Representing the actual features of an individual; not ideal.

   a portrait bust; a portrait statue

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɔʁ.tʁɛ/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

Noun

portrait m (plural portraits)

1. portrait
2. (printing) portrait (format)

   Antonym: paysage

3. description (of a person or things)

Derived terms

• portrait craché
• refaire le portrait

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: портрет (portret)
• → Czech: portrét
• → Dutch: portret
  • Afrikaans: portret
  • Petjo: potrèt
  • → Caribbean Javanese: potrèg, potrèt
  • → Indonesian: potret
  • → Papiamentu: portrèt, pòtrèt, pòrtrèt, portret
• → German: Porträt, Portrait (rarer since ca. 1900, now nonstandard outside Switzerland)
  • → Russian: портрет (portret)
  • → Serbo-Croatian: portret / портрет
  • → Ukrainian: портрет (portret)
• → Greek: πορτρέτο (portréto), πορτραίτο n (portraíto)
• → Norwegian: portrett
• → Polish: portret
• → Romanian: portret
• → Slovene: portret
• → Swedish: porträtt
  • → Finnish: potretti
• → Turkish: portre

Further reading

• “portrait”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norman

Noun

portrait m (plural portraits)

1. (Jersey) portrait