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"painter" in seven languages

Meaningpainter

Spanish

pintor

/pinˈtoɾ/

masc.inherited

fem.: pintora

French

peintre

/pɛ̃tʁ/

masc.inherited

From the nominative *PINCTOR, not the accusative — one of a handful of French nouns that kept the subject form.

Italian

pittore

/pitˈtore/

masc.inherited

fem.: pittrice

Portuguese

pintor

/pĩˈtoh/

masc.inherited

Romanian

pictor

/pikˈtor/

masc.learned

Catalan

pintor

/pinˈto/

masc.inherited

English

painter

/ˈpeɪntɚ/

from Latin/French · Anglo-French peintour

English → ItalianpainterpittoreCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

PICTŌREM (Vulgar Latin *PINCTŌREM)‘painter’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

Spoken Latin borrowed the n of PINGERE 'to paint' into PICTOR, so Spanish and French have pint-/peint- while Italian kept classical PICT- with the usual ct → tt.

English relatives: picture, pictorial, paint

Sound laws at work

CT

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In a sentence

  • esGoya fue un gran pintor.
  • frGoya était un grand peintre.
  • itGoya è stato un grande pittore.
  • ptGoya foi um grande pintor.
  • roGoya a fost un mare pictor.
  • caGoya va ser un gran pintor.
  • enGoya was a great painter.

More in Work & money

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