peint

Peint is the past participle of the French verb peindre, meaning to paint. It is used in compound tenses such as the passé composé (Il a peint le tableau) and the plus-que-parfait (Il avait peint plusieurs tableaux). It can also function as an adjective meaning painted, as in un mur peint or des portes peintes.

The participle has distinct gender and number forms when used as an adjective: masculin singulier peint, féminin singulier peinte, masculin pluriel peints, féminin pluriel peintes. In verb tenses with the auxiliary avoir, the participle generally does not change to agree with a preceding object, but it does agree when the direct object is placed before the verb, for example: Les tableaux qu'il a peints (masculin pluriel). In the passive voice formed with être, the participle agrees with the subject: La porte a été peinte; Les murs ont été peints.

Etymologically, peint comes from the Old French peindre, itself from Latin pingere, meaning to paint or to color. The related feminine noun peinte and the noun peinture (painting) share the same root. The form peint is widely used in literary, artistic, and journalistic French to describe actions of painting as well as the resulting painted state of objects.

In common usage, peint contrasts with the nouns peinture (the art or act of painting) and peintre (painter). It appears in discussions of artwork, restoration, and descriptions of surfaces that have already received paint.