στύππη

Forms

στύππη (stúppē) f (genitive στύππης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers the family most likely a substrate word, as it has no known cognates;^[2] Furnée compared τοπεῖον (topeîon, “cord, rope”).^[2][1] Frisk notes that it has long been compared with a Sanskrit word for “tuft” and with στύφω (stúphō), but finds no certain match outside Greek.^[3] Bailly too calls it perhaps Pre-Greek.^[4]

According to Frisk, the rare στύππη is the base of στυππεῖον (stuppeîon, “tow, oakum”), which replaced it in Greek; before that it had been borrowed as Latin stuppa, from a Doric colony of southern Italy.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found only in a passage of Josephus quoted by the Suda, where a portico is filled with tow, asphalt and pitch.^[5][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The usual Greek word for tow was its derivative στυππεῖον (stuppeîon), from Herodotus on;^[2][6] Galen also has στύπος (stúpos) in the same sense.^[2][3]

Through Latin stuppa and Old French estope (“tow”) it lies behind the English legal word estop, “to bar”;^[7] Etymonline also reports the view that West Germanic words for “to stop up”, among them the English word stop, were borrowed from a Vulgar Latin verb formed from stuppa, a view others doubt.^[7]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Josephus, as the Suda quotes him, tells of a portico filled with tow, asphalt and pitch.^[5][2][8]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses the variant στύπος (stúpos) for tow.^[2][3][8]
• 1530s – English has estop, through Anglo-French and Old French from Latin stuppa.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Tow, oakum: the coarse fibre of flax or hemp.^[4][2][3]

Word family

• στυππεῖον (stuppeîon)

Related words

• Latin stuppa
• English estop

Usage notes

Bailly prefers the spelling with double π to στύπη.^[4] The Suda glosses it with the late form στίππυον (stíppuon).^[5][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
5. ^ a b c Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck