tincture

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a medicinal solution in alcohol, or a slight trace of something

   She added a few drops of the tincture to the warm water.

Simplified etymology

Tincture originally meant a dye or pigment and comes from Latin tinctura, “dyeing,” derived from tingere, “to dye or color.” Because dyeing involved solutions and the extraction of active substances, the word acquired the pharmaceutical sense “extract” in the early 17th century. Its slang use for an alcoholic drink appeared in the early 20th century.

From Latin tinctura ('a dyeing'), from tingere ('to dye, moisten, tint').

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