stufa

Forms

stufa f (plural stufe)^[1] Older forms are stuffa and stuva.^[2]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun: it is from Italian stufare, with no suffix.^{[3][4][5][1][6]} The verb is from Vulgar Latin *extufāre (“to heat with steam”), from ex- and Ancient Greek τύφω (túphō, “to smoke”) (Nocentini, GRADIT), or a verb formed from τῦφος (tûphos, “steam, fever”) (DELI); Wiktionary calls the Greek source only possible.^[3][4][5][1] For a hot bath, Medieval Latin stupa is recorded at Bologna in 1250 and stuppa at Padua in the 13th century.^[3]

Nocentini calls the history of the verb and the noun beside the other Romance words complex and not fully explained.^[4] Gallo-Romance starts from a variant *extupāre with a noun *estūpa “steam-bath room”, which gave French étuve and Occitan estuba and Catalan estuba, while Spanish estufa and Spanish estofar come from Italian.^[4][7] Meyer-Lübke also has Portuguese estufa from the Italian noun.^[7] The word passed into Germanic as “heated steam room”: Old High German stuba, German Stube and Old English stofa, whence the English word stove.^[4] Meyer-Lübke, however, thought the likeness to the German word accidental.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the noun to the 13th century, in the Fiore, and Zingarelli to 1282.^[5][8] The Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, has uno paniere di rose di verno e una stufa (“a basket of winter roses and a hothouse”).^[3] Early in the 14th century Marco Polo's Italian uses it for a hot bath, and in 1353 Boccaccio for a heated room.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

From the 14th to the 17th century stufa also meant a hot bath: Boccaccio has a man put in una stufa and rubbed and washed with hot water.^[10][5][11] It also named a warm room, a fumigation and a still.^[10]

The heating stove is recorded before 1537 in Biringuccio.^[3] Machiavelli's una stufa dove rifuggire il freddo, “a stove (or warm room) to escape the cold”, probably still means the room.^[3][12] Giacomo Soranzo remarked that Germans used stoves instead of fireplaces, and Soderini that they were mostly of thin terracotta.^[2] The hothouse sense is recorded from 1807 at Milan, and later technical senses name a drying chamber and a natural emission of volcanic gas from underground cavities.^[3][5][8]

English borrowed stufe “hot-air bath” in 1533, and stufa in 1830 for the volcanic vent and in 1832 for the bath.^[13]

Timeline

• 1250 – Medieval Latin stupa “hot bath” is recorded at Bologna.^[3]
• 1282 – Zingarelli's date for stufa.^[8]
• Late 13th century – The Fiore uses the word.^[5]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses stufa for a hothouse.^[3]
• Early 14th century – Marco Polo's Italian uses the word for a hot bath.^[3]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses stufa for a heated room.^[3]
• 1533 – English stufe “hot-air bath” is recorded.^[13]
• Before 1537 – Biringuccio uses stufa for a heating stove.^[3]
• 1807 – The hothouse sense is recorded at Milan.^[3]
• 1830 – English stufa names a volcanic vent.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stove or heater: an appliance of cast iron, ceramic or other material that heats a room: stufa a legna, stufa a gas, stufa elettrica.^{[5][11][14][8][1]}
2. (technology) A chamber kept at a high temperature to dry or season materials such as timber.^{[5][11][14][15]}
3. (horticulture) A heated greenhouse.^{[5][11][8][15]}
4. (archaeology) A room of the Roman baths heated by circulating hot air.^[5][11][16]
5. A room at a spa that uses natural underground vapours for sweat cures.^[5][11] (archaic) A hot bath.^[5][11][8]
6. (geology) A natural emission of hot gases in underground cavities, a residual sign of volcanic activity.^{[5][11][14][16]}

Word family

• stufetta
• stufaiolo

Related words

• stufare
• stufato
• stufo
• tifo
• French étuve
• German Stube
• English stove

Usage notes

Stufa is also the feminine of the adjective stufo “fed up”, a contracted past participle of stufare, and a form of the verb.^[14][3][17] In some regions stufa is also the wood or gas cooker.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
17. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org