different between contaminate vs stain

English

Etymology

From Old French contaminer, from Latin contaminare (“to touch together, blend, mingle, corrupt, defile”), from contamen (“contact, defilement, contagion”), related to tangere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?tæm?ne?t/

Verb

contaminate (third-person singular simple present contaminates, present participle contaminating, simple past and past participle contaminated)

1. (transitive) To make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter.

2. (transitive) To soil, stain, corrupt, or infect by contact or association.
   • I would neither have simplicity imposed upon, nor virtue contaminated.
3. (transitive) To make unfit for use by the introduction of unwholesome or undesirable elements.

4. To infect, often with bad objects

Related terms

• contaminable
• contamination
• contaminative

Translations

Further reading

• contaminate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• contaminate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• contaminate at OneLook Dictionary Search

Italian

Verb

contaminate

1. second-person plural present of contaminare
2. second-person plural imperative of contaminare
3. feminine plural past participle of contaminare

Latin

Verb

cont?min?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of cont?min?

English

Etymology

From Middle English steinen, steynen (“to stain, colour, paint”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse steina (“to stain, colour, paint”), from steinn (“stone, mineral blue, colour, stain”), from Proto-Norse ??????? (stainaz), from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *steyh?- (“to stiffen”). Cognate with Old English st?n (“stone”). More at stone.

Replaced native Middle English wem (“spot, blemish, stain”) from Old English wem (“spot, stain”).

In some senses, influenced by unrelated Middle English disteynen (“to discolor, remove the colour from"; literally, "de-colour”), from Anglo-Norman desteindre (“to remove the colour from, bleach”), from Old French destaindre (“to remove the color from, bleach”), from des- (“dis-, de-, un-”) + teindre (“to dye”), from Latin tingo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ste?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Noun

stain (plural stains)

1. A discoloured spot or area.
2. A blemish on one's character or reputation.
3. A substance used to soak into a surface and colour it.
4. A reagent or dye used to stain microscope specimens so as to make some structures visible.
5. (heraldry) Any of a number of non-standard tinctures used in modern heraldry.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

stain (third-person singular simple present stains, present participle staining, simple past and past participle stained)

1. (transitive) To discolour.

   to stain the hand with dye

   armour stained with blood

2. To taint or tarnish someone's character or reputation
3. To coat a surface with a stain

   to stain wood with acids, coloured washes, paint rubbed in, etc.

   the stained glass used for church windows

4. (intransitive) To become stained; to take a stain.
5. (transitive, cytology) To treat (a microscopic specimen) with a dye, especially one that dyes specific features
6. To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison.

   • She stains the ripest virgins of her age.

   • c. 1591-1592, Edmund Spenser, Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard, Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier

     that did all other beasts in beauty stain

Translations

Anagrams

• Astin, Insta, Saint, Santi, Sinta, Tanis, Tians, antis, insta-, saint, sat in, satin, stian, tians, tisan

Gothic

Romanization

stain

1. Romanization of ????????????????????

Gutnish

Etymology

From Old Norse steinn (“stone”), from Proto-Norse ??????? (stainaz), from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”). Cognate with English stone, German Stein, Dutch steen, Danish sten, Norwegian Bokmål sten, Norwegian Nynorsk stein, Swedish sten, Faroese steinur, West Frisian stien, Low German Steen. Ultimately from Pre-Germanic *stoyh?nos, o-grade from Proto-Indo-European *steyh?- (“to stiffen”).

Noun

stain m

1. stone, rock, as material or individual piece of rock or pebble

Middle English

Adjective

stain

1. Alternative form of stonen

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse steinn (“stone”), from Proto-Norse ??????? (stainaz), from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”). Cognate with English stone, German Stein, Dutch steen, Danish sten, Norwegian Bokmål sten, Norwegian Nynorsk stein, Swedish sten, Faroese steinur, West Frisian stien, Low German Steen. Ultimately from Pre-Germanic *stoyh?nos, o-grade from Proto-Indo-European *steyh?- (“to stiffen”).

Noun

stain m

1. stone, rock, as material or individual piece of rock or pebble

Alternative forms

• stäin
• stejn