stuoia

Forms

stuoia f (plural stuoie)^[1] Old forms are Old Italian storia, Old Italian stoia, Old Italian stora and Old Italian stuora;^[2][3][4][5] stoia is still the popular form.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin storea (“mat of rushes or cord”), in its variant storia.^{[3][6][7][1][8]} Devoto gives the Vulgar Latin form as *storja.^[9]

The Latin word is continued in Occitan estueira, Catalan estora, Spanish estera and Portuguese esteira; Sardinian istoya is borrowed from Italian.^[6][10] Northern dialect forms include Piedmontese störia and stör.^[11]

The Latin word is probably of Greek origin, from an unrecorded derivative of Ancient Greek στόρνυμι (stórnumi, “to spread”), a verb of Indo-European origin; the OLD calls its origin doubtful.^{[3][6][9][12]} Sabatini–Coletti take it to be of the same root as Latin sternō (“to spread on the ground”), and Wiktionary derives it directly from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃-.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is storia, in a testament of 1263;^[3] stoia is in the Siena Costituto of 1309–1310 and stuoia in Dino Compagni (1310–1312), for a mat of woven rushes, canes or straw.^[3] Bono Giamboni tells of a corpse laid on “a most wretched mat” (una vilissima stuoia).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Mats served many purposes: Crescenzi's translation covers the new must in the vat with a clean cloth or a new stuoia, and Paganino Bonafé lays olives on a stora.^[2] Mats were used as floor coverings and curtains, for wall and ceiling linings under plaster, and to protect crops from the weather.^[7][13]

The diminutive stoino meant a small mat for wiping the feet in front of a door (1855) and then an outside roller blind of thin wooden slats (1865).^[3] In textiles and embroidery a stuoia describes a fabric with a raised weave and a stitch that imitates matting.^[4][14]

Timeline

• 1263 – Storia appears in a testament.^[3]
• 1309–1310 – Stoia appears in the Siena Costituto.^[3]
• 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses stuoia.^[3]
• 1855 – Stoino “doormat” is recorded by Fanfani.^[3]
• 1865 – Stoino “roller blind” is recorded by Fanfani.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mat of woven rushes, canes, straw, esparto or palm leaves, used as a rug, a curtain against the sun, a wall covering or a bed: Si sdraiò su una stuoia all'ombra.^{[7][4][8][14]}
2. (textiles) tessuto a stuoia: a fabric with a raised weave.^[4][14]
3. (embroidery) punto stuoia or punto a stuoia: a stitch of long passes held at intervals by slanting stitches, giving the look of matting.^[4][14][13]

Word family

• stoino
• stuoino
• stoiaio
• stoiare

Related words

• strato
• Latin storea
• Latin sternō

Usage notes

Treccani gives the pronunciation /ˈstwɔja/ and the popular form stoia.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 424
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli