Everyday LifeGreek → English
Ink
/ɪŋk/noun
Coloured fluid used for writing, drawing or printing.
The Greek roots
ἐν
en
in
καίειν
kaíein
to burn
Literally: “burnt in”
The story of the word
ἔγκαυστον meant 'burnt in', and it named the purple ink that Roman and then Byzantine emperors alone were permitted to sign with. Late Latin encaustum wore down through Old French enque to English around 1300, shedding every letter that showed the burning. Encaustic painting, where pigment is fixed into hot wax, still holds the original sense; so does caustic, which never stopped meaning it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- c. 1300
Same family
encausticcausticholocaust
In a sentence
The ink had faded to brown but the pen pressure was still visible on the back.