estaño

Forms

estaño m (uncountable)^[1] Old Spanish wrote estanno; the Navarrese and Aragonese texts of the 13th century have estaynno.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish estanno, inherited from Latin stagnum (“tin”).^[4][5][6][1] Corominas stresses that the spelling with ⟨gn⟩ is the old classical one, found in the best manuscripts from Pliny to Isidore, and that all the Romance forms come from it; the spelling stannum, widespread in the Middle Ages and in modern times, occurs only in inferior manuscripts.^[4] The DLE and Wiktionary give both spellings.^[6][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese estanho, Asturian estañu, Catalan estany, Occitan estanh, French étain and Italian stagno.^[7][8][1] In Catalan, as in Occitan and Italian, the same form also means “pond”, from the Latin homonym meaning “standing water”.^[4][9]

In Latin the word first meant an alloy of silver and lead, in Pliny and Suetonius, and only later “tin”.^[10][11] It is usually considered a borrowing, perhaps from Celtic: the DLE compares Irish stán, and Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Celtic *stagnom.^[6][1][12] The DHLF notes Pliny's statement that tin-plating was a Gaulish invention, but calls the source uncertain.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the 1247 Fueros de Aragón, in a law about a Jew who pawned a tin vessel to a Christian, claiming that it was silver: Vn iudio enpenno a logro un uaso d estanno … diziendo que era dargent “a Jew pawned at interest a vessel of tin … saying it was of silver”.^[3] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250) has it earlier by date, but it is known only from a 15th-century copy.^[3] Corominas's first record is the Setenario, of about 1250.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the metal;^[14] Alfonso X's Lapidario notes that tin breaks the hard stones that nothing else can cut.^[3][14] Covarrubias (1611) describes it as the metal of plates and whole sets of tableware, also called peltre, and notes that vessels of other metals were tinned to keep them from rust and give a good taste.^[15] Cervantes uses it for the lead of bullets, beside powder.^[16][17]

In Argentina and Uruguay it was once used for the counter of a bar, and in popular Argentine speech for experience.^[18] Today it is also the chemical element of atomic number 50, and the solder made from it.^[6][1]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre, in a 15th-century copy, has estaño.^[3]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón has estanno, the first record in a contemporary manuscript.^[3]
• c. 1250 – the Setenario, Corominas's first record;^[14] Alfonso X's Lapidario gives the Latin and Arabic names of the metal.^[4][14]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses it in the Libro de buen amor.^[19]
• 1444 – Aragonese inventories record it from this year on.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin stannum and cassiteros and the verb estañar.^[20][21]
• 1512 – first record from the Americas: tin plates in Puerto Rico.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes tin tableware and the tinning of vessels.^[15]
• 1732 – Autoridades gives the metal and, as a second sense, “lagoon”.^[17]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin stannum.^[23]

Meanings

Noun

1. tin: the silvery metallic element of atomic number 50 (symbol Sn), used to coat other metals and in solders, and alloyed with copper to make bronce.^[6][1]
2. Solder made of tin alloy.^[1]
3. (Argentina, Uruguay, dated) The counter of a bar.^[18]
4. (Argentina, colloquial) experience, practice.^[18]

Word family

• estañar

Related words

• restañar
• peltre
• Latin stagnum
• Portuguese estanho

Usage notes

A second word estaño “lagoon, pond”, from Latin stagnum “standing water, pool”, is marked as no longer in use by the DLE.^[6][4] Corominas doubts that it was ever a genuine Castilian word: it was used by Aldrete, probably as a Latinism, whence Autoridades and the Academy's dictionaries took it.^[4][17] It also occurs in a 1495 translation of Boccaccio.^[4] DICCA-XV takes it from Catalan estany.^[21] Cervantes calls the lagoon of La Goleta el estaño.^[16] The set phrase papel de estaño means “tinfoil”.^[6][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. estaño
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estaño
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 776
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estaño
6. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. estaño
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 6315
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. stagnum
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 749
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. stagnum
11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. stannum
12. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. estaño
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. étain
14. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. estaño
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 803
16. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 503
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 628
18. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. estaño
19. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 242
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 351
21. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. estaño
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. estagno
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 431