Painting
nounA picture or image made using paint on a surface such as canvas or paper.
How to spell painting
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce painting
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does painting mean?
- nounA picture or image made using paint on a surface such as canvas or paper.
- nounThe act or activity of applying paint to a surface, whether as decoration or as art.
Painting in a sentence
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A large oil painting hung above the fireplace.
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He took up painting as a relaxing hobby after retiring.
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The gallery sold the painting to a private collector for a fortune.
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The painting of the kitchen took most of the weekend.
Where does painting come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word grows out of the verb 'paint', which English borrowed in the 1200s from Old French 'peint', the past participle of 'peindre' meaning 'to depict or colour'. That French verb descends from the Latin 'pingere', which literally meant 'to paint, embroider, or tattoo', and the same Latin root surfaces in modern words such as 'picture', 'pigment', and 'depict'. The native English suffix '-ing' was then attached to turn the verb into a noun, first naming the action of applying colour and later the finished coloured object itself. By the 1300s and 1400s 'painting' was used both for the craft and for the work of art produced. The spelling is reassuringly regular, with the only mild trap being the silent gliding sound of 'ai' and the '-ting' ending, which fluent writers rarely get wrong.
How the word is built
- paint (from Latin pingere: to paint, depict)
- -ing (noun-forming suffix)
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