Portraict

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A painted, drawn or photographed likeness of a person ; to depict a person or thing in a picture or in words
2. An image of a person made in paint, drawing or photograph ; to represent someone or something visually or in writing
3. A picture showing a person's likeness ; to capture or describe a subject through painting, drawing or words

Etymology: Spelled "portraict," this is an Elizabethan form of "portrait," and the spelling shows the word's history. English borrowed the term from French, where "portrait" was the past participle of "portraire," meaning "to portray" or "to draw." So a portrait was originally a thing that had been drawn or depicted, and the noun took its shape from the verb. The French verb came from Latin "protrahere," "to draw forth," though the path from Latin to French is not a straight line. The -ct ending is not a sign of a Latin word hiding inside. Sixteenth-century English writers often added silent letters to French loanwords to make them look classical, and the "c" was likely meant to suggest Latin "tractus," a word the French term does not descend from. The respelling made the word look learned, and it was common in the period. Later spelling reform settled on "portrait," and the verb "portray" followed the same French source.