estaca

Forms

estaca f (plural estacas)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Gothic *𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌺𐌺𐌰 (*stakka, “stake”), a Gothic word that is not recorded in Ulfilas's texts.^[2][3] The BDELC and Wiktionary give it with a single ⟨k⟩, *𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌺𐌰 (*staka).^[4][1] Corominas follows Meyer-Lübke: the word is widespread in the Germanic languages, and Gothic has other words of the same family, meaning “the pitching of a tent” and “mark, scar”; the double /kk/ would have spread from the weak cases, where it was the regular outcome of /kn/.^[2] Its Germanic relatives are Old English staca, English stake, Middle Dutch stake, Dutch staak and Old Norse stjaki.^[2][3]

The same word is Portuguese estaca, Catalan estaca, recorded from the 14th century, Occitan estaca and Old French estache, frequent from the Chanson de Roland to the end of the Middle Ages.^[2] Italian stecca (“small rod”) differs in form and sense, and goes rather with Old High German stecko (“stick, staff”), from a Gothic *𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌺𐌺𐌰 (*stikka).^[2] Corominas does not wholly rule out a pre-Roman origin, because Umbrian has a participle stakaz (“established”), which comparatists connect with Iranian words for “firm, strong”.^[2]

The Germanic word is Proto-Germanic *stakô.^[1][5] Its further origin is uncertain: it may go back to a root Proto-Indo-European *stegʰ- (“bar, pillar, rod”), and Kroonen also suggests a noun formed from *stikaną (“to stick”); older works derived it from *(s)teg- (“pole, stick”).^[1][5] Autoridades in 1732 and the Academy's dictionary from 1884 derived it from German Stach (“staff, stick”).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word for the pegs of a tent: in the battle arrancarse las estacas e acostarse los tendales “the tent pegs were pulled out and the tent poles fell”.^[2][8][4] La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) uses it in the same way, for the pegs and cords of the tabernacle.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word was common in the medieval language: Juan Ruiz has it for a long pole and for a cutting to be grafted, and Berceo has the masculine diminutive estaquiello for a pupil's pointer.^[2][9] Nebrija distinguished a stake for tethering animals from one for planting, about 1495.^[2][10] Covarrubias in 1611 explains estar a estaca as being tied in a small space with a limited ration, like a beast tethered to a peg, and Autoridades adds the sense “cudgel”, quoting the Quijote.^[11][6] In thieves' slang it meant a dagger.^[12][13]

In the Americas the word was used from the 1530s for a mining claim marked out with stakes, a sense the DLE still records for Bolivia and Chile.^[14][3] In Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru it also names the spur of a cock, and in the Canaries a fillet of meat.^[15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy) has estacas for tent pegs.^[2][8]
• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar uses the word for the pegs of the tabernacle.^[8]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España names a ford de las estacas, the first hit without a later copy in the CDH.^[8]
• 1490 – first record of the derivative estacada “palisade”.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija distinguishes estaca para atar bestia and estaca para plantar.^[10]
• 1536 – a mine a estacas in Mexico City, the first sense from the Americas.^[14]
• 1590 – first record of the verb estacar.^[4][2]
• 1605 – first record of estacazo, in the Quijote.^[2][4]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's glossary of thieves' slang gives estaca as “dagger”.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the phrase estar a estaca.^[11]
• 1732 – Autoridades derives the word from a German Stach.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stake: a stick sharpened at one end to be driven into the ground: Clavaron las estacas de la tienda en la arena.^[3][1]
2. A cutting: a green branch or stick without roots, planted so that it grows into a tree.^[3][17]
3. A thick stick that can be used as a walking stick or cudgel.^[3]
4. A long iron nail, 30 to 40 centimetres long, used to fasten beams and timbers.^[3]
5. The first antler that grows on a deer in its first year.^[3]
6. (Bolivia, Chile; mining) A mining claim granted to applicants after certain formalities.^[3][18]
7. (Chile) The spur of a bird.^[3][18]

Word family

• estacar
• estacada
• estacazo
• estacón
• estaquilla

Related words

• atacar
• English stake

Usage notes

A estaca or a la estaca is a nautical phrase for “held fast, unable to move away”.^[3] In the Canaries, estaca was a culinary word for a slice or fillet of meat.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 764
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. estaca
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estaca
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *stakô
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 620
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 463
8. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estaca
9. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 241
10. ^ 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. estaca
11. ^ 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. 800
12. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 175
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 322
14. ^ a b 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. estaca
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 403
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. estaca
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estaca
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. estaca