estay

Forms

estay m (plural estayes or estáis)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French estay, modern French étai, which goes back to Frankish *stag.^[2][3][4] Corominas compares English stay and Old Norse stag.^[2] Wiktionary instead derives the Old French word from Frankish *staka (“stake, post”), from Proto-Germanic *stakô.^[1] The DHLF keeps two French words apart: the nautical rope, recorded about 1080 and taken from Old Saxon, and the prop, from Frankish; the DHLF thinks the second influenced the first.^[5] García de Diego gives Old English stæġ as the source, and lists Portuguese esteio beside it.^[6] Alemany in 1917 derived it from a Flemish word meaning “support”.^[7]

Proto-Germanic *stagą is from a root meaning “to be stiff”.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest nautical record in the CDH is Gutierre Díaz de Games's El Victorial (1431–1449, in a copy of the late 15th or early 16th century): one ship rammed another at the bow, broke its bowsprit and soltóle el estay “loosened its stay”.^[9] The Breve diccionario dates the word 1538, defining it as the rope that ties the head of a mast to the foot of the next one so that it does not fall towards the stern.^[2] The earlier CDH hits under estay are forms of the verb estar (estáis).^[9]

Semantic evolution

A 1573 record from Santo Domingo orders the crew to tighten the stays, and a 1587 text from Mexico City, with the form estae, describes it as a thick rope running from the mainmast to the foremast and on to the bowsprit.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1732) gave the same definition and quoted a sonnet with the plural estayes.^[11] Domínguez in 1846 and Gaspar y Roig in 1853–1855 also used the word for the staysail set on it and listed kinds of stay.^[12][13] The DLE records estay de galope, the highest stay, which holds the heads of the topgallant masts.^[3]

Timeline

• 1431–1449 – El Victorial has the first nautical record in the CDH.^[9]
• 1538 – the Breve diccionario's date of first record.^[2]
• 1573 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[10]
• 1587 – a text from Mexico City defines estae.^[10]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades enters the word.^[11]
• 2001 – the Academy gives Old French estay and Frankish *stag as its source.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) A stay: a rope that ties the head of a mast (mástil) to the foot of the next mast forward, to keep it from falling towards the stern (popa): El temporal rompió el estay del trinquete.^[3][1][15]

Related words

• French étai
• English stay
• Portuguese esteio

Usage notes

The plural is estayes, the form Autoridades quotes, and also estáis.^[15][11][1] In the Dominican Republic Malaret recorded an unrelated estay for a plate of pickles, ham, olives, sausage and cheese served with drinks.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estay
3. ^ 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. estay
4. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 723
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estay
10. ^ a b c 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. estae
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3
12. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 759
13. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 943
14. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. estay
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estay
16. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 401