estuco

Forms

estuco m (plural estucos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian stucco, which comes from Lombardic *stukki (“piece; crust”).^[2][3][4][5] Corominas compares Old High German stucki, German Stück (“piece”), Old English stycce and Old Norse stykki.^[2] Gómez de Silva traces the Germanic word to Proto-Indo-European *steu-.^[6] Nocentini notes that French stuc and the Spanish word come from Italian, and that German Stuck (“stucco”) is a loan back from Italian.^[5] The Italian word is already medieval: the DELI dates it 1355.^[2][7]

A variant estuque is recorded in 1563 and in Covarrubias.^[8] Corominas thinks it came through the French word, of the 16th century, or Catalan estuc.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades took it from German.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Juan López de Hoyos's account of the death and funeral of Queen Isabel of Valois, printed in 1569: the whole church was whitewashed with estuco, que es un material hecho de mármol y cal “stucco, which is a material made of marble and lime”, and so bright that one could see oneself in it.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The word spread quickly in the language of art and building: Corominas cites Cristóbal de las Casas (1570), Ambrosio de Morales (1575) and Gálvez de Montalvo (1582), whose Pastor de Fílida describes a hall of white stucco with marble busts of the Roman emperors.^[2][10] Góngora's Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe (1618) speaks of Praxiteles copying a figure in stucco.^[10] The anonymous Veintiún libros de los ingenios y máquinas de Juanelo Turriano (before 1605) describes a mixture called stucco, and Valladares de Valdelomar in 1617 defined it as plaster and wet paper.^[10]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1732) described a mixture of lime, plaster, sand and ground marble that becomes as glossy as alabaster when polished, and used for statues.^[8] Terreros separated ordinary stucco from the fine stucco of marble dust and lime used for sculptural ornament.^[11] The DLE records the colloquial phrases ser un estuco and parecer de estuco “to remain impassive”.^[4] In Chile it is used for heavy make-up that covers the pores, and in Bolivia as a drug name for cocaine base.^[12]

Timeline

• 1355 – the Italian stucco is recorded.^[7]
• 1563 – the variant estuque.^[2]
• 1569 – Juan López de Hoyos uses estuco, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1582 – Gálvez de Montalvo's El pastor de Fílida.^[2][10]
• 1618 – Góngora's Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe.^[10]
• 1706 – the derivatives estucar and estucado are recorded.^[3]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[8]
• 1794 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A paste of white plaster (yeso) and size, used to make objects that are later gilded or painted.^[4][14]
2. stucco: a continuous coating of slaked lime (cal) and marble dust, sometimes with alabaster or plaster, for walls: Las molduras del techo son de estuco pintado.^[4][1]
3. (Chile, popular) Thick make-up that covers the pores of the skin.^[12]
4. (Bolivia, drugs) Cocaine base.^[12]

Word family

• estucar
• estucado
• estucador
• estuquería
• estuquista

Related words

• Italian stucco
• Catalan estuc
• French stuc

Usage notes

Ser un estuco or parecer de estuco is said colloquially of someone who shows no emotion.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 815
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estuco
4. ^ a b c d e 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. estuco
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
7. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ 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, 657
9. ^ Cabrera, Ramón (1837), Diccionario de etimologías de la lengua castellana, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta de Marcos Bueno, p. s.v. estuco
10. ^ 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. estuco
11. ^ 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, 123
12. ^ 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. estuco
13. ^ 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. estuco
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estuco