stelo

Forms

stelo m (plural steli)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin stilus (“stalk, stem”), the popular outcome of the word, with the Latin short ⟨i⟩ giving ⟨e⟩, later opened.^[2][3][4][1] The learned doublet is stilo, and stile came through French.^[1][4] Menagio already linked the Italian word with the Latin one.^[5] REW also put Spanish estelo and Portuguese esteio (“pillar”) here.^[6]

De Vaan calls the origin of the Latin word uncertain: it may share a root ⟨sti-⟩ “sharp object” with stimulus (“goad”) and stīva (“plough-handle”), but the root cannot be fixed.^[7] Wiktionary gives a probable Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to sting”), and notes that the Latin word is not related to Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”), with which it was later confused in the spelling ⟨stylus⟩.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Dante, before 1321, in the sense of the stalk of herbaceous plants and flowers.^[2] In Inferno 2 the little flowers, bent and closed by the night frost, open again in loro stelo when the sun whitens them.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Poliziano and Ariosto took up Dante's image of the flower on its stalk, and Ariosto also used stelo for the trunk of a tree.^[9][10] Dante has it for a pivot too, and in the 14th century it named the rod of a mechanism;^[5][11] DEI and Prati record stelone “pole” in Oudin in 1639.^[5][11]

In modern Italian the word names any thin supporting rod, as in the floor lamp, lampada a stelo, the piston rod of engines and pumps, and the stem of a valve.^[2][12][13] DELI dates this sense to 1960.^[2] Anatomy uses it for the part of a hair outside the skin, and the hosiery trade for the clock of a stocking.^[14][15]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses stelo in the Inferno.^[2]
• 1331 – GRADIT's first dated record.^[12]
• 1639 – Stelone “pole” is recorded by Oudin.^[5]
• 1960 – The sense “thin supporting rod” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The stem of a herbaceous plant; the stalk of a flower: Ho tagliato i tulipani con lo stelo lungo.^[12][14][4]
2. (literary) The trunk of a tree.^[12][14]
3. A thin, elongated part that supports or connects: lampada a stelo, a standard lamp.^[12][14][13]
4. (mechanics) The piston rod linking the piston with the crosshead; the stem of a poppet valve.^[12][13][15]
5. (anatomy) The part of a hair that projects from the skin.^[14][4]
6. (hosiery) The clock on the side of a stocking;^[12][14] punto stelo, stem stitch.^[12][14]

Word family

• controstelo

Related words

• stilo
• stile
• Latin stilus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3627
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 949
12. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)