estancia

Forms

estancia f (plural estancias)^[1] Old Spanish also had estança, in Berceo, Juan Ruiz, the Cancionero de Baena and Nebrija.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Spanish estar (“to be, to stay”).^[3][1][4] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of the verb, with a first record in 1251 and the Old Spanish variant estança.^[2][4]

Gómez de Silva traces it to Vulgar Latin *stantia (“a standing, a staying”), from stāns, the present participle of stō (“to stand”); the Spanish Wikcionario gives the same chain.^[5][6] The same Latin type is Portuguese estância, Italian stanza and Catalan estança.^[6] Vox derives the literary sense “stanza” from the Italian word.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Calila e Dimna of 1251, known from a copy of the late 14th or early 15th century, where a speaker says he acted por su pro et a buena estançia dél “for his benefit and good standing”.^[2][8] The Judizios de las estrellas (1254–1260) uses mala estancia for a bad state of affairs foretold by the stars.^[8] The oldest sense was thus “state, condition”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the state of being somewhere the word came to mean a stay, a dwelling and the room where one lives: Covarrubias in 1611 defines it as the room where one rests, the house or sheltered place to which we retire.^[9] Autoridades adds the military sense, chiefly in the plural, of the camp where an army is quartered.^[10] In 1817 the Academy also gives the stanza of a poem, the day spent by a patient in a hospital and the farm of “some parts of America”.^[11] Terreros had explained the poetic sense with the octave as an example.^[12]

In the Americas estancia has named a farm or rural property since the first years of the conquest.^[13][14] In the River Plate it is above all a cattle ranch with its buildings.^[15][16] In Cuba and the Dominican Republic it is a country house near a town, and in Bolivia also a village of the Andean plateau.^[16] In Mexico Moliner records it for a living room.^[17]

Timeline

• 1230 – a Latin charter of Oña has stancia “instance”.^[8]
• 1251 – the Calila e Dimna has estançia, “standing, state”.^[2][8]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has estança de veladores “watchmen's post” and estança donde alguno está “dwelling”.^[2][18]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: indios que servían en la estancia.^[13]
• 1519 – Fernández de Enciso writes of people living outside the towns en sus estancias.^[14]
• 1589 – Castellanos uses the American sense “country estate” in his Elegías.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the room where one rests.^[9]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the stanza, the hospital day and the American farm.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “De estar”.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A residence or dwelling in a place.^[3]
2. A room of a house where one lives, especially a large one: El palacio tiene veinte estancias.^[3][17][1]
3. A stay, the time spent in a place: Durante su estancia en Lima aprendió quechua.^[3][1]
4. Each day a patient spends in a hospital, and the fee charged for it.^[3]
5. (poetry) A stanza of more than six hendecasyllables and heptasyllables, whose pattern is repeated through the poem.^[3][1]
6. (South America, Honduras, Dominican Republic) A large country estate, especially a cattle ranch.^[3][16]
7. (Cuba, Dominican Republic) A country house near a town.^[16]
8. (Mexico) A living room.^[17]

Word family

• estanciero

Related words

• estar
• estación
• estante
• Italian stanza

Usage notes

Alfonso X's General Estoria has lagunas estancias “stagnant lagoons”, an Old Spanish adjective meaning “stagnant”.^[21][8] Corominas treats this adjective under estantío and regards estancia in the Libro de los Cavallos as a misreading of it.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 776
3. ^ 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. estancia
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estar
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. estancia
6. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. estancia
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. estancia
8. ^ 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. estancia
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 627
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 393
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 110
13. ^ 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. estancia
14. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. estancia
15. ^ Granada, Daniel (1890), Vocabulario rioplatense razonado, 2nd ed., Montevideo: Imprenta Rural, p. 7
16. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. estancia
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estancia
18. ^ 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. estancia
19. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 190
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 465
21. ^ 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. estancia