tinctor

Tinctor is a historical term used to denote a person who practices dyeing textiles, commonly referred to in English as a dyer. The word derives from the Latin tinctor, meaning “dyer,” with related adjectives such as tinctorius and tinctorium that appear in botanical and scientific names of dye-producing plants. In Latin binomials, several dye-related plants carry forms of tinctor, for example Indigofera tinctoria (true indigo), Isatis tinctoria (woad), and Rubia tinctorum (madder).

The craft of tinctor involved extracting colors from natural sources and applying them to fibers. Traditional dyeing required preparing fibers, choosing appropriate dye sources, and employing mordants—substances such as alum or tannin—to fix color to protein or cellulose fibers. Dyes could be applied through various methods, including vat dyeing, mordant dyeing, and fermentation-based extraction. The practice varied with fiber type (wool, silk, cotton, linen) and with local materials, climate, and trade networks. Tinctors often worked within guilds or workshops and maintained recipes and techniques that were passed down across generations.

Today, the term tinctor is largely archaic in English; the modern equivalents are dyer or textile colorist. The botanical use of tinctoria or tinctorius in plant names remains common, signaling historical dye-producing properties. The concept still informs the study of historical textile trades, pigment chemistry, and the origins of many traditional textile colors.