Etymology

portrait

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Today it means: A painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders. Full definition →

Middle French portraict ← Latin prōtrahō
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromprōtrahō
  2. Middle French · derived fromportraict
  3. English todayportrait

From Middle French portraict, pourtraict, nominal use of the past participle of portraire (“portray”), from Latin prōtrahō (< prō- + trahō). Compare typologically English drawing.

Words from the same roots

Latinprōtrahō all →

protract

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.