tainture
nounEtymology Perhaps taint + -ure; perhaps from Middle French tainture (“dye; dyeing; tincture”). Doublet of teinture, tinctura, and tincture.
1
Obsolete Dirtiness; uncleanliness; contamination, tainting.
- Gloster, ſee here the Taincture of thy Neſt, And looke thy ſelfe be faultleſſe, thou wert beſt.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], page 127, column 2:
- Dem[etrius]. Now Princes, your demands? Sel[eucus]. Peace, if it may bee Without the too much tainture of our honour: […]1619, John Fletcher, “The Humorous Lieutenant”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene vi, page 135, column 1:
1 more example
- 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 […]1637, Joseph Hall, The Remedy of Prophanenesse, or, Of the True Sight and Feare of the Almighty, London: Nathanael Butter, Book 1, Section 11, p. 83: