The derivation of the English word “INK,” and of its representatives in various modern languages, has caused much perplexity to philologists, and has been the subject of many erroneous conjectures. We suffix the names by which it is known in those nations who have most employed it:
| English, | Ink. |
| Low-Dutch, Neder-Duytsch, Hollandisch, | Inkt. |
| German or Deutsch, | Dinte and Tinte. |
| Old German, | Anker, Tincta, Tinta and Dinde. |
| Danish, Norwegian, } | Blaek, (India Ink, Tusch.) |
| Norse, Icelandic, } | |
| Swedish, | Blaeck, (India Ink, Tusk.) |
| French, | Encre. |
| Old French, | Enque. |
| Italian, | Inchiostro. |
| Spanish, | Tinta. |
| Portuguese, | Tinta. |
| Illyrian, | Ingvas. |
| Polish, | Incaust. |
| Basque, | Coransia. |
| Latin, | Atramentum. |
| Mediæval Latin, | Encaustum. |
| Greek, | Melan. |
| Hebrew, | D’yo. |
| Chaldee, | N’kaso. |
| Arabic, | Nikson, Anghas. |
| Persian, | S’y’ah’o. |
| Hindustani, } | S’yaho, Rosh’na, kali, shira, mas, |
| and Hindui, } | murakkat, kalik, midad. |
| Sanscrit, | Kali, (Black.) |
| Armenian, | Syuaghin. |
We might amuse ourselves by extending this tabular list indefinitely. Enough, however, has been already shown to illustrate a few remarkable facts which we wish to present that are connected with the etymology of our subject; but we present a page of Lithographic illustrations which will enable any “curious reader” to trace the word further.
No dictionary of the English language gives us any help or light about the matter. Webster suggests “inchiostro,” (the Italian word,) as the source of derivation; and all the Italian lexicographers agree that inchiostro is from the later Latin ENCAUSTUM, which is in fact Greek, Εγκαυστον, (Encauston,) “burned-in or corroded.” Encaustum became corrupted into “enchaustrum,” from which the transition to “inchiostro,” is by the regular form of derivation from the Latin to the Italian,—the L before a vowel giving place to a short I—as “piano” from PLANUS. (The CH, in Italian is always sounded hard, like the English K.)
Leaving the French word encre as on the middle ground between different etymologies, and affording no light either way,—we find the Spanish and Portugese “tinta,” and the German (a language widely remote from those of the Iberian peninsula in origin and affinities) “dinte, tinte and tincta,” forcibly reminding us of the Latin participle TINCTUS, TINCTA, TINCTUM, from the verb TINGO, which is represented in English by TINGE, and other derivatives, such as “tincture,” &c. We cannot refuse to recognize the Holland-Dutch “Inkt” as from the same root to which we have thus traced the corresponding word in a language which we may call its “cousin-German;” and it is hard to exclude the Old French “Enque” and modern “Encre” from this circle of relationship.
Then, we are somewhat impressed by the discovery of the word Ingvas in the Illyrian, a language of the Slavonic (or more properly Slovenic) stock, like the Polish,—and, like that, enriched by words derived from the Latin. The Polish, however, presents us with the actual Graeco-Latin Encaustrum.
Still more remote from the English and Italian, we find among the Orientals of the Shemitish race, ANGHAS and NIKSON in the Arabic, and N’KASHO in the Chaldee, with a manifest resemblance in sound, and with an actual possession of the same elements and radical letters, N. K. Yet we do not think of suggesting that these words had a common origin with the corresponding ones in European Languages, though so nearly coincident in sound. The case is simply one of accidental resemblance, a remarkable coincidence,—(because occurring at three different and remote points,) but yet a coincidence not wholly unparalleled.
The probability is that the English word, like the Dutch, German, Spanish, &c., came from the Latin TINCTUM, but it may be left “an open question;” for if we had not these instances to direct the formation of our opinions, we should have no hesitation in acknowledging the Italian Inchiostro as the true ETYMON; just as, if we had neither of these in view, we might suspect the origin of our word to be in the Oriental ANGHAS or NIKSON.
The Ethiopic KALAMA at first sight appears to be related to the Hindustani KALI; but the latter is merely the word in all the languages of Hindustan for black,—while the former is but a modification of the Greek and Latin CALAMUS, a reed or pen,—the instrument (naturally enough) giving its name to the liquid which was essential to its use.
The word ENCAUSTUM connects, in a very interesting and instructive manner, both with the history and the chemistry or manufacture of our modern inks, and is a satisfactory demonstration of the utility of such etymological researches as those in which we have been here indulging.