Other forms: tinctures
A tincture is a medicine dissolved in alcohol, or a slight trace. Tincture of iodine, a herbal tincture, a tincture of doubt.
The alcohol both extracts the active parts of a plant and preserves them, which is why herbalists still use tinctures. The figurative sense means the faintest trace of something, and in heraldry a tincture is a colour.
1nountinctureA medicine dissolved in alcohol, or a slight trace.
“The herbalist gave her a tincture of valerian to help her sleep.”
tincture is a preparation.
Latin tinctura means a dyeing, from tingere, to dye or tint.
Proto-Indo-European
*teng- — to dip; to soak
Latin
tīnctūra — act of dyeing
Middle English
tincture — a dye, pigment; a colour, hue, tint; process of colouring or dyeing; medicinal ointment or salve (perhaps one discolouring the skin); use of a medicinal tincture; (alchemy) transmutation of base metals into gold; ability to cause such transmutation; substance supposed to cause such transmutation
English, today
tincture
Built from
The noun is derived from Late Middle English tincture (“a dye, pigment; a colour, hue, tint; process of colouring or dyeing; medicinal ointment or salve (perhaps one discolouring the skin); use of a medicinal tincture; (alchemy) transmutation of base metals into gold; ability to cause such transmutation; substance supposed to cause such transmutation”)tinctour, tinctur, tingture, borrowed from Latin tīnctūra (“act of dyeing”) + Middle English -ure. Tīnctūra is derived from tīnctus (“coloured, tinged; dipped in; impregnated with; treated”) + -tūra; while tīnctus is the perfect passive participle of tingō (“to colour, dye, tinge; to dip (in), immerse; to impregnate (with); to moisten, wet; to smear”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European teng- (“to dip; to soak”). a doublet of tainture and teinture and tinctura. The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA