▪ I. pigment, n.
(ˈpɪgmənt)
[ad. L. pigmentum, f. pig-, ping-ĕre to paint. So OF. pigment (12–13th c.). Pyhment occurs in late OE. in sense 2. Cf. piment.]
1. A colouring matter or substance. a. Any substance (usually artificially prepared) used for colouring or painting; a paint, dye, ‘colour’; in technical use, a dry substance, usually in the form of powder or easily pulverized, which, when mixed with oil, water, or other liquid vehicle, constitutes a ‘paint’.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. xxvi. (Bodl. MS.), Minium is a red coloure..: In Spayne is more suche pigment þan in oþer londes. 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos., Pigment, a painting. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. iii. iii. (1651) 469 Artificial inticements and provocations of Gestures, Cloaths, Jewels, Pigments. 1663 Boyle Exp. Hist. Colours iii. xii. Wks. 1772 I. 735 Allow me,..for the avoiding of ambiguity, to employ the word pigments to signify such prepared materials (as cochineal, vermilion, orpiment) as painters, dyers, and other artificers make use of. 1684–5 ― Min. Waters iv. Wks. IV. 806 Balaustium, logwood, brasil, and other astringent vegetable pigments. 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 312 A beautiful white pigment called ceruse. 1883 Ruskin Art Eng. 11 The harmonies possible with material pigments. |
b. Nat. Hist., etc. Any organic substance occurring in and colouring any part of an animal or plant; the natural colouring-matter of a tissue.
| [1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 3*/1 During pregnancy an increased secretion of pigmentum is said to take place.] 1842 Prichard Nat. Hist. Man (ed. 2) 89 The discoloration depended on the presence of cells filled with pigment. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 68 Grains of chlorophyll and allied pigments. |
† 2. = piment 1. Obs. (in Scott, arch.)
| [1150–1200 in Sax. Leechd. III. 136 Nim hwyt cudu & gyngyfere & recels..of oþþrum pyhmentum ane sticcan fulne. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. lix. (Bodl. MS.), Pigmentum haþ þat name as it were pilis mentum, quod scilicet in pila est contumsum [sic] þat is ibete in a mortere: of þe whiche spicery by pigmentary crafte he makeþ likinge drinke and electuaries.] c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. vi. 167 To sauour..with puttyng to pygment, Or pepur, or sum other condyment. 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. xi. ii. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. Brit. (1652) 181 As musk in Pygments. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe iii, Place the best mead,..the most odoriferous pigments, upon the board. |
3. a. attrib. and Comb. (usually in sense 1 b), as pigment-cell, pigment-grain, pigment-granule, pigment-molecule, pigment-particle, pigment-speck, pigment-spot; pigment-bearing, pigment-forming, pigment-laden adjs.
| 1842 Prichard Nat. Hist. Man (ed. 2) 89 Description of the pigment-cells in the negro. 1859 J. R. Greene Protozoa 65 A bright coloured particle (usually red), termed the..‘pigment spot’, is found in the bodies of many Infusoria. 1875 tr. von Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. I. 248 The pigment bacteria, which cannot be distinguished from one another microscopically. Ibid. II. 625 Cells and flakes containing pigment granules. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight ii. 14 A layer of flat, dark brown, or nearly black, pigment cells..also covers the posterior surface of the iris. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases iii. 73 For the most part these pigment grains are enclosed in leucocyte-like bodies. Ibid. 81 The tendency the pigment-laden leucocytes exhibit to carry their burden to the spleen. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 916 The etiology of pigment-bearing new growth. |
b. Special combs.: pigment colour (see quot.); pigment epithelium or layer Ophthalm., the layer of the retina next to the underlying choroid, which consists of a single layer of pigmented cells having processes that extend between the rods and cones of the adjacent layer, and which continues forwards over the posterior surfaces of the ciliary processes and the iris; pigment-printing, (a) a method of printing calicoes, etc. with pigments attached to the cloth by an albuminous substance; (b) the printing of permanent photographs with carbon or other pigments.
| 1873 tr. M. Schultze in Stricker's Man. Human & Compar. Histol. III. xxxvi. 269 Although..not directly continuous with the nerve fibres, the layer of pigment cells, ordinarily termed the pigment epithelium of the choroid, still belongs, both physiologically and morphologically, to the retina. 1862 O'Neill Dict. Calico Printing & Dyeing 168 Pigment colours, this name has been given to those colours which are in the state of powder, and insoluble in the vehicle by which they are applied to the fabric. 1892 A. Duane tr. Fuchs's Text-bk. Ophthalm. iv. 247 The inner surface of the uvea is everywhere coated with a layer of pigmented cells, belonging to the retina and having the character of epithelial cells (pigment-epithelium). 1971 T. L. Lentz Cell Fine Struct. 386 The pigment epithelium has traditionally been considered as a layer of the retina. It may more logically, however, belong to the choroid, because the basement lamina..of the pigment epithelium is part of the glassy or Bruch's membrane of the choroid. |
| 1889 J. Leidy Elem. Treat. Human Anat. (ed. 2) xvi. 875 Pigment-layer of the choroidea. 1974 D. Shepro et al. Human Anat. & Physiol. ix. 251 The pigment layer absorbs extraneous light that might randomly stimulate receptor cells and create a poorer image. |
| 1883 Hardwich's Photogr. Chem. (ed. Taylor) 339 Carbon, or pigment printing [in Photography]. 1897 J. Nicol in Outing (U.S.) XXX. 496/2 The carbon or pigment printing method gives the very highest class of positives. |
▪ II. pigment, v.
(ˈpɪgmənt)
[f. the n.]
trans. To colour with or as with a pigment.
| 1900 Nature 1 Mar. 416/1 To pigment the image, a piece of carbon tissue is soaked in a weak solution containing acetic acid, hydroquinone, and ferrous sulphate, squeezed on to the print and allowed to dry. 1908 A. S. M. Hutchinson Once aboard Lugger v. i. 285 The stain enters the blood and, thence oozing, pigments every part of the being. 1979 G. Macdonald Camera xii. 175 Robert Demachy experimented skilfully with gum prints which allowed him to pigment and work the coatings until the images looked more like drawings than photographs. |
Hence ˈpigmenting ppl. a.
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 1 Dec. 18/2 The effect of the silver image in the bromide print, in conjunction with the ‘pigmenting’ solution taken up by the plaster, is to render the pigmented compound forming the plaster..insoluble. 1958 Engineering 21 Mar. 384/1 The material is a blend of polymeric materials, solvents, stabilisers, and pigmenting compounds. 1971 Brit. Poultry Sci. XII. 206 The purpose..was to evaluate the efficacy of canthaxanthin for the augmentation of naturally occurring pigmenting compounds found in yellow corn and alfalfa for the pigmentation of broilers. |