Meaning

noun dry coloring material (especially a powder to be mixed with a liquid to produce paint, etc.)

noun any substance whose presence in plant or animal tissues produces a characteristic color

noun a substance used as a coating to protect or decorate a surface (especially a mixture of pigment suspended in a liquid); dries to form a hard coating

originFrom Middle English pigment, from Latin pigmentum (“pigment”), itself from pingō (“to paint”) + -mentum; variants of this word may have been known in Old English (e.g. 12th century pyhmentum). Doublet of pimiento, pimento, and piment.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0