pigment
/ˈpɪɡ.mənt/ noun, verb
Forms pigments pigmenting pigmented
- noun (biology) Any color in plant or animal cells. “Chlorophyll is the pigment responsible for most plants' green colouring.”
- noun A dry colorant, usually an insoluble powder. “Umber is a pigment made from clay containing iron and manganese oxide.”
- noun (obsolete) Wine flavoured with spices and honey.
- verb (transitive) To add color or pigment to something.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English pigment, from Latin pigmentum (“pigment”), itself from pingō (“to paint”) + -mentum; variants of this word may have been known in Old English (e.g. 12th century pyhmentum). Doublet of pimiento, pimento, and piment.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any material from which a dye, a paint, or the like, may be prepared; particularly, the refined and purified coloring matter ready for mixing with an appropriate vehicle.
- noun Any one of the colored substances found in animal and vegetable tissues and fluids, as bilirubin, urobilin, chlorophyll, etc.
Etymology [L. pigmentum, fr. the root of pingere to paint: cf. F. pigment. See Paint, and cf. Pimento, Orpiment.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pigment”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details