A pigment is a substance that gives color to materials, such as paint, ink, or living tissues like skin and leaves.
From Latin 'pigmentum' meaning 'coloring, paint', from 'pingere' meaning 'to paint, decorate'. It originally referred to artistic colorants before being used in science and biology.
The colors you see in a painting and the green in a leaf both come from pigments doing very different jobs. Some pigments just reflect light, while others, like chlorophyll, actually trap light and turn it into energy.
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