Tint is an alteration of earlier tinct, from Latin tinctus ('a dyeing'), from tingere ('to dye, color'). The historical chain includes Latin tinctus and Latin tingere. The quoted older senses, "a dyeing" and "to dye, color", supply the semantic anchors for tint. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word tint carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a shade or variety of a color; to color slightly". English derivatives include tinted and tinting; related English forms include tinct, tincture, taint, and tinge. The result is a noun and verb whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.