stucco

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian stucco (“relief moulding in plaster; fine plaster”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which the revised OED dates in Italian to 1355 (a plaster ornament) and to before 1537 (fine plaster).^[2] The Italian word is of Germanic origin,^[7][8][6][5] probably from Lombardic stuhhi (“plaster, crust”),^[2][9] cognate with Old High German stucki (“rind, crust; piece, fragment”),^{[2][3][4][10]} from Proto-Germanic *stukkiją,^[1] the same Germanic base as stick in the OED's account.^[2] Etymonline also compares Old Saxon stukki, Old English stycce (“a piece”) and German Stück (“piece, patch”), and refers it to stock;^[3][4][10] Klein adds Old Norse stykki.^[10] The OED notes that the Italian word was also borrowed into French stuc, Spanish estuco, Portuguese estuque, German Stuck and other European languages.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fine plaster for covering walls and ceilings and for making mouldings: 1598, in Richard Haydocke's translation of Lomazzo's treatise on painting.^[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the fine plaster of gypsum and powdered marble used for decorative work; from 1697 the word also named the art of stucco ornament and work made with it, and since 1753 a single stucco ornament.^[2] From 1734 it was used for a coarser plaster or cement for the rough outer surfaces of walls, imitating stone,^[2][3] and in the United States from 1922 for a house with stuccoed walls.^[2] Johnson (1755) knew only the fine plaster for walls.^[11] The verb, to coat with stucco, is recorded from 1726,^[2][3][4] and figuratively from 1774, in Goldsmith.^[2]

Timeline

• 1598 – a fine plaster for walls, ceilings and mouldings.^[2][4][6]
• 1697 – stucco ornament as an art; stuccowork.^[2]
• 1726 – verb, to coat or decorate with stucco.^[2][3][4]
• 1734 – a coarse plaster or cement for outer walls.^[2]
• 1753 – a single ornament or moulding of stucco.^[2]
• 1774 – verb, figuratively, to plaster over.^[2]
• 1826 – plaster of Paris (now rare).^[2]
• 1922 – in the United States, a stuccoed house.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plaster or cement, now usually of portland cement, sand and lime, put on wet to give a hard coating to the outside walls of a building.^[6][12][2]
2. A fine plaster, as of gypsum and powdered marble, used for decorative mouldings on walls and ceilings.^[6][12][2]
3. Decorative work moulded in such plaster; stuccowork.^[12][2]

Verb

1. To coat or decorate with stucco: They stuccoed the old brick garage.^[6][12][2]

Word family

• stuccoed
• stuccowork

Related words

• stock
• stick

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins