etching

English

Rococo title print by Juste Aurele Meissonnier, 1738-1749, etching on paper, 51.6 x 34.9 cm, Rijksmuseum

Large sculpture gallery built on arches and lit from above . . ., by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, circa 1750, etching, size of the entire sheet: 49.4 × 33.5 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛt͡ʃ.ɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtʃɪŋ

Noun

etching (plural etchings)

1. (uncountable) The art of producing an image from a metal plate into which an image or text has been etched with acid.

   Hypernym: intaglio

   Hyponyms: aquatint, mezzotint

   Coordinate term: engraving

2. (countable) The image created by this process.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."

Derived terms

• cryoetching
• electroetching
• etching scribe
• photoetching
• see someone's etchings

 

Translations

art of producing an image

• Catalan: aiguafort (ca) m
• Czech: lept (cs) m
• Dutch: ets (nl) m or f
• Finnish: etsaus (fi)
• French: gravure (fr) f, eau-forte (fr) f
• German: Ätzradierung f, Radierung f
• Hebrew: תַּחְרִיט m (takhrit)
• Hindi: निक्षारण (nikṣāraṇ)
• Italian: acquaforte (it) f
• Polish: trawienie (pl) n, akwaforta (pl) f
• Romanian: acvaforte (ro) f
• Russian: офорт (ru) (ofort)
• Spanish: aguafuerte (es) m
• Turkish: gravür (tr)

image created by this process

• Bulgarian: гравюра (bg) f (gravjura)
• Catalan: aiguafort (ca) m
• Czech: lept (cs) m
• French: eau-forte (fr) f, estampe (fr) f
• German: Radierung f
• Italian: acquaforte (it) f
• Polish: akwaforta (pl) f
• Romanian: acvaforte (ro) f
• Turkish: gravür (tr)

Verb

etching

1. present participle and gerund of etch

Further reading

• etching on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• teching