pinto (PIN-to) adjective

   Marked with patches of white and another color.
 
noun

   1. Pinto horse: a horse having patches of white and another color.

   2. Pinto bean: a variety of kidney beans having mottled seed.

[From American Spanish pinto (spotted), from obsolete Spanish, from
Vulgar Latin pinctus (painted), past participle of pingere (to paint).
Ultimately from Indo-European root peig- (to cut, mark) that's the
source of such words as paint, depict, picture, pigment, pint, and
pimento.]

Here are two other words to describe horses and other animals:

  piebald: spotted in black and white.
  skewbald: marked with patches of white and another color, but not black.

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=pinto

  "A black-faced, pinto-colored horse, Panda made her Central Massachusetts
   debut as a guide animal Saturday at the National Education for Assistance
   Dog Services campus."
   Mary Anne Magiera; Miniature Horses Make Fine Guides; Telegram & Gazette
   (Worcester, Massachusetts); Jun 11, 2002. 

  "Add some extra veggies to some pinto or black beans and they are
   pretty good."
   Edmund Tijerina; Canary Island Wine is Coming This Way; San Antonio
   Express News (Texas); Oct 12, 2004.

This week's theme: what does that car name mean?
Today's word is the name of a now-discontinued car from Ford. For its safety
problems and the manufacturer's negligence, Pinto has become a symbol for
all such products: http://motherjones.com/news/feature/1977/09/dowie.html


Next week: Autumn Contributing Membership Drive.


Sponsors' Messages:
Give an awesome stocking stuffer: Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty! Friends and
family adore its fun colors and adult-sized handfuls: http://puttyworld.com

A cure for brain drain! One brain-building, at-a-glance email a day helps
keep embarrassing ignorance away. http://knowledgenews.net/s?s=aw041111

............................................................................
I love my country too much to be a nationalist. -Albert Camus, writer,
philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)

Feeling information overload? Sign off a few mailing lists. If you wish
to unsubscribe from AWAD, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with the word unsubscribe in the subject line of your message. Of course,
we'd rather you stay with us. After all, it is only a `word' a day. (-:

Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/pinto.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/pinto.ram

Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/pinto.html

This message was sent to "[email protected]".

Reply via email to