estilo

Forms

estilo m (plural estilos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stilus (“stake; stem; writing stylus; manner of writing”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas dates it to the second quarter of the 15th century and suggests that Juan de Valdés, who used it often, may have been influenced by Italian.^[2] The inherited outcome of the same Latin word is the old estelo (“stake, post”), of the 14th century; Galician esteo and Portuguese esteio mean “post, prop”.^[2][5][6] The learned word is Catalan estil, Portuguese estilo, French style and Italian stilo.^[7][8][6]

The spelling ⟨stylus⟩ reflects an old identification with Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”), which Autoridades still followed; the Greek word is not related.^[2][9][1] The origin of the Latin word is unclear: de Vaan sees a possible root meaning “sharp object” shared with stimulus, and finds the other proposed cognates doubtful.^[10] Wiktionary derives it, with reservations, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to sting”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pero López de Ayala's Rimado de Palacio (c. 1378–1406, in a mid-15th-century copy) already uses it of literary manner: fize algunos cantares de grueso estilo “I made some songs in a rough style”.^[11][12] In Aragonese, Juan Fernández de Heredia wrote stillo “manner, usage” in his translation of Orosius (1376–96).^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word was still new: Alfonso de Palencia (1490) paraphrased the Latin word rather than translating it, and Nebrija gave estilo de dezir for Latin character dicendi.^[2][13] The legal sense, the established practice of a court, appears in the Ordenanzas Reales of Castile (1490 edition), and it gave the verb estilar “to be customary” (Covarrubias, 1611).^[2][3]

Covarrubias in 1611 explains the chain of senses: the iron stylus with which the ancients wrote on wax tablets, then the structure and phrasing of speech or writing, and more widely a person's customary way of acting.^[14] Autoridades (1732) adds the gnomon of a sundial.^[9] Later senses are the characteristic manner of an artist, period or school, elegance in dress and bearing, a swimming or other sports technique and, in botany, the style of a flower.^[4] In Argentina and Uruguay an estilo is a melancholy folk song for guitar and voice, and in Uruguay also a dance performed to it.^[4][15]

Timeline

• 1376–96 – Juan Fernández de Heredia writes stillo “usage” in Aragonese.^[11]
• c. 1378–1406 – Pero López de Ayala's Rimado de Palacio has cantares de grueso estilo.^[11]
• 2nd quarter of the 15th century – the first records in the DCECH, in Santillana and the Cancionero de Baena;^[2][3] Juan de Mena's Coronación (1438).^[2][3]
• 1490 – the legal sense “practice of a court” in the Ordenanzas Reales of Castile.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: estilo de dezir, Latin character dicendi.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the senses of style from the writing stylus.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy admits estilista.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A way or manner of doing or behaving: Ese no es mi estilo.^[4][1]
2. Use, practice, custom or fashion.^[4]
3. The manner of writing or speaking peculiar to a writer or speaker; literary style.^[4]
4. The characteristic manner of an artist or composer, or of a period, school or genre: una iglesia de estilo gótico.^[4]
5. elegance, distinction, good taste: Se arregla con mucho estilo.^[4][1]
6. (history) The pointed stylus with which the ancients wrote on wax tablets.^[4][9]
7. The gnomon of a sundial.^[4][9]
8. (botany) The style of a flower, the stalk that rises from the ovary and bears the stigma.^[4][1]
9. (sports) Each of the ways of performing a sport, as a swimming stroke: estilo libre.^[4]
10. (nautical) The pin on which the needle of a compass turns.^[4]
11. (Argentina, Uruguay) A melancholy folk song for guitar and voice;^[4][15] (Uruguay) the dance performed to it.^[4][15]

Word family

• estilar
• estilista
• estilizar
• estilismo
• estilístico
• estiloso

Related words

• estilográfico
• estímulo
• Latin stilus

Usage notes

Por el estilo means “of that kind, similar”: algo por el estilo “something like that”.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 789
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estilo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. estilo
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6340
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8260
7. ^ 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, 777
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1452
9. ^ 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, 635
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. stilus
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estilo
12. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. estilo
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 351
14. ^ 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. 1, 806
15. ^ 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. estilo
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estilo