patina

Definition

A paten, flat type of dish.

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian patina, from Latin patina (“dish, pan”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē), either from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread”) or from Pre-Greek. Doublet of paten, patena, and patine.

Example Sentences

• "he enjoys a patina of respect by the police, despite being an ex-criminal"
• "It demonstrates how scientific authority could be constructed on the fly, as it were, by someone with no connections and no psychological credentials who offered a technique that had the patina of modern science[…]"

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