ペンキ

Dutch pek and its variant pik are the forms given for ペンキ in Shogakukan's Nihon Kokugo Daijiten. Dutch pek means pitch, a sticky sealing substance used on ships and surfaces; Wiktionary traces it back through Middle Dutch and Latin pix. Shogakukan cites Hattori Seiichi's Tokyo Shin Hanjoki, 1874-1876, with ペンキ glossing a coating applied to pillars and walls. This is a modernizing-period borrowing connected with construction, ships, railways, public buildings, and Western-style coatings. The meaning changed from pitch or sealing material to paint, especially oil paint. Digital Daijisen also defines ペンキ as paint, especially oil paint. Related Meiji and later terms include ペイント from English paint, 塗料 as a technical Japanese term, ラッカー, ニス, エナメル, and 油性ペイント. Today ペンキ is common for paint used on walls, fences, gates, furniture, and signs. It is not the normal word for watercolor or school art materials; 絵の具 covers that area, and 塗料 sounds more industrial. Hardware stores often contrast it with ニス and ラッカー, and manuals prefer 塗装 or 塗料 for product specifications. English paint is broader and also a verb, while Dutch pek is not ordinary modern paint. A short example is 門に青いペンキを塗る. The final キ reflects the Dutch-source explanation.