different between tincture vs suffuse

English

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Latin tinctura, from the verb tingo. Compare tint, taint. teinture.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?t??(k)t??/, /?t??ktj??/
• Rhymes: -??kt??
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t??kt??/

Noun

tincture (plural tinctures)

1. (obsolete) A pigment or other substance that colours or dyes. [15th–19th c.]
2. A tint, or an added colour.
3. (heraldry) A colour or metal used in the depiction of a coat of arms.
4. An alcoholic extract of plant material, used as a medicine.
5. (humorous) A small alcoholic drink.
6. An essential characteristic.
   • 1924, W. D. Ross (translator), Aristotle, Metaphysics, Nashotah, Wisconsin, USA: The Classical Library, 2001. Book 1, Part 6.

     for the earlier thinkers had no tincture of dialectic

7. The finer and more volatile parts of a substance, separated by a solvent; an extract of a part of the substance of a body communicated to the solvent.
8. A slight taste superadded to any substance.

   a tincture of orange peel

9. A slight quality added to anything; a tinge.
   • 1734, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Cobham

     All manners take a tincture from our own.

Translations

Verb

tincture (third-person singular simple present tinctures, present participle tincturing, simple past and past participle tinctured)

1. To stain or impregnate (something) with color.
   • 1740, David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Part III, Section IX, [1]

     The passions of fear and hope may arise when the chances are equal on both sides, and no superiority can be discovered in the one above the other. Nay, in this situation the passions are rather the strongest, as the mind has then the least foundation to rest upon, and is tossed with the greatest uncertainty. Throw in a superior degree of probability to the side of grief, you immediately see that passion diffuse itself over the composition, and tincture it into fear.

   • 1911, The Mining World, Volume 34, p. 73, [2]

     No definite system was used for testing the tincturing and spreading powers of the pigments, or for testing their permanence.

   • 1998, Nadine Gordimer, House Gun, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, p. 212,

     Which one of the carefully chosen assessors, one white, one sufficiently tinctured to pass as black, was it who was speaking […]

2. (figuratively) To tinge; to taint.
   • 1674 John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V, 277-85, [3]

     Six wings he wore, to shade / His lineaments divine; the pair that clad / Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast / With regal ornament; the middle pair / Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round / Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold / And colours dipt in Heaven; the third his feet / Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail, / Sky-tinctured grain.

   • 1797, William Blake, Vala, or The Four Zoas, in W. H. Stevenson (ed.), Blake: The Complete Poems, London: Routledge, 3rd edition, 2007, "Night the Seventh," 759-60, p. 413,

     And first he drew a line upon the walls of shining heaven, / And Enitharmon tinctured it with beams of blushing love.

   • 1820, Letter from Joseph Severn to John Taylor, Rome, 24 December, 1820, [4]

     Now observe, my dear Sir, I don’t for a moment push my little but honest Religious faith upon poor Keats, except as far as my feelings go, but these I try to keep from him. I fall into his views sometimes to quiet him and tincture them with a somewhat of mine, […]

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 10, [5]

     As it is, one must turn to some authority not liable to the charge of being tinctured with the Biblical element.

   • 1982, Saul Bellow, "Him with His Foot in His Mouth" in Collected Stories, New York: Viking, 2001, p. 379,

     They have too many books, most of them burdensome. The crowded shelves give off an inviting, consoling, seductive odor that is also tinctured faintly with something pernicious, with poison and doom.

3. To soak (an organic substance) in alcohol or another liquid to produce a tincture.
   • 1995, Deb Soule, The Woman's Handbook of Herbal Healing: A Guide to Natural Remedies, New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2011, Chapter 2, [6]

     I prefer to tincture each herb separately and mix combinations as I need them.

   • 2009, Greg A. Marley, Mushrooms for Health: Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi, Down East Books, [7]

     At its simplest, tincturing involves chopping or grinding the source material as finely as possible, covering it with ethyl (grain) alcohol, and allowing the mixture to macerate, or steep, for two weeks or more.

Derived terms

• untinctured

Translations

References

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928) , “Tincture”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume X, Part 1 (Ti–U), London: Clarendon Press, OCLC 15566697, page 48, column 2.

Anagrams

• intercut

Latin

Participle

t?nct?re

1. vocative masculine singular of t?nct?rus

Romanian

Verb

tincture

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of tinctura
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of tinctura

English

Etymology

From Latin suffund?.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /s??fju?z/
• Rhymes: -u?z

Verb

suffuse (third-person singular simple present suffuses, present participle suffusing, simple past and past participle suffused)

1. (transitive) To spread through or over something, especially as a liquid, colour or light; to bathe.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To spread through or over in the manner of a liquid.
3. (transitive) To pour underneath.

Usage notes

• The verb is often used in the passive voice.

Synonyms

• diffuse

Derived terms

• suffusate
• suffusion
• suffusive

Related terms

• infuse

Translations

Adjective

suffuse (comparative more suffuse, superlative most suffuse)

1. Suffused; diffuse.
   • 1912, New York State Museum, Annual Report, page 243:

     This limonite-colored mud is most often very suffuse and only faintly apparent.

   • 2014, Rita Petrini, Through the Curtain of Time and Space (?ISBN):

     Most of us mortals choose a very suffuse, dim light to have in our room, others push the switch to the maximum.

Italian

Verb

suffuse

1. third-person singular past historic of suffondere

Noun

suffuse f

1. plural of suffondere

Latin

Participle

suff?se

1. vocative masculine singular of suff?sus