Think of one drop of dye falling into a of clear water. The amount is tiny, the is not broken, and yet the whole has changed colour and the colour cannot be taken back out. That is taint. When the drop is a real substance, the milk or the water or the air is spoiled and has to go. When the drop is a piece of , a name or a result changes colour in the same way: nothing has been destroyed, but nobody can look at it as they did before.
From the word’s history
Taint comes from Old French teint, the past participle of teindre 'to dye', from Latin tingere; tint is the same root. The dye is not a metaphor added later — it is where the word starts.
taint 來自古法文 teint，那是 teindre（染色）的過去分詞，再往前是拉丁文 tingere；tint（色調）同源。所以「染色」不是後來才加上去的比喻，而是這個字的出發點。
Wiktionary entry 'taint' (Middle French teint < Old French teint, past participle of teindre, < Latin tinctum / tingere; compare tint), supplied in this evidence packet as kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:669487268.
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