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,
