estarcir

Forms

estarcir (first-person singular present estarzo, first-person singular preterite estarcí, past participle estarcido)^[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin extergēre (“to wipe dry, clean”).^[2][3][4][1] The change of meaning comes from the way stencilling was done: according to Autoridades, the pricked drawing was transferred by rubbing a bag of powdered charcoal over it.^[2][3][5] Meyer-Lübke noted that the source could also be abstergēre, of the same meaning.^[2][6]

The same Latin verb gave Catalan estargir, also “to stencil”, and words meaning “to wipe, clean” in Old Occitan esterzer, Old French esterdre and Romanian șterge.^[2][6][7] García de Diego finds it striking that, of so widespread a Latin verb, Spain keeps only this word with the narrow sense “to trace”.^[7]

The Latin verb is formed from ex- and tergeō (“to rub, wipe off, cleanse”).^[1][8] The Academy's 1899 edition derived the Spanish verb from English stencil;^[9][10] Alemany in 1917 went back to the Latin.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Palomino's treatise on painting, of 1708, quoted by Autoridades: Se pica con una agúja, y se estarce sobre la tela con un cisquero “it is pricked with a needle and stencilled onto the canvas with a pounce bag”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades labelled it a painters' term: to transfer a pricked drawing onto another surface by rubbing powdered charcoal over it.^[5] The Academy kept this definition, with the cisquero or pounce bag, until 1884.^[11][12] In 1899 it was redefined as printing drawings, letters or numbers by passing a brush over a plate in which they are cut out, the modern sense of stencilling.^[9][4]

Timeline

• 1708 – Palomino uses the verb in painting.^[2][3]
• 1732 – Autoridades records it as a term of painting.^[5]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros gives it for painters and engravers, with French calquer and poncer.^[13]
• 1847 – Alverá Delgrás describes stencilling patterns for handwriting lessons.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy defines it as stencilling with a cut-out plate.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stencil: to print drawings, letters or numbers by passing colour through the cut-outs of a plate: Estarcieron los números de serie en cada caja.^[4][1][15]

Word family

• estarcido

Related words

• Latin extergeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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, 779
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estarcir
4. ^ a b c 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. estarcir
5. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 631
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. extergēre
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2601
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. extergeō
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 432
10. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 723
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 394
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 467
13. ^ 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, 111
14. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estarcir
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estarcir