stannum

Forms

stannum n (genitive stannī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Celtic, a word of Celtic origin;^[1][2] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Celtic *stagnom and compares Irish stán,^[1] and Etymonline compares Welsh ystaen, Cornish sten and Breton sten.^[2] Etymonline also calls the spelling with ⟨nn⟩ a scribal alteration of stagnum,^[2] and the OLD records the word under that spelling, comparing, with hesitation, Ancient Greek σταφυλή (staphulḗ).^[3] Lewis & Short note that ⟨stagnum⟩ was perhaps also written, whence the adjectives stagneus and stanneus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder uses it for an alloy of silver and lead,^[4][5] the sense Suetonius also has.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it came to mean tin, which had earlier been called plumbum album or candidum;^[4] Jerome and Isidore of Seville use it so,^[4][5] and Stelten glosses it only as tin.^[6]

In Medieval Latin the spelling stannum also stood for stagnum “pond”,^[7][8] and Du Cange lists it as well for a stall where wares were sold, a tin vessel, and a form of scamnum “bench”.^[8] The word is the source of Italian stagno, French étain and Spanish estaño “tin”,^[2] and Modern Latin stannum gave the English chemical adjective stannic.^[2]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for an alloy of silver and lead.^[4][9]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it for tin.^[4][9]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses it for tin.^[4][5][9]
• 1790 – English forms stannic “of tin” from Modern Latin stannum.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An alloy of silver and lead.^[4][5]
2. (Late Latin) Tin.^[4][5][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A pond (a spelling of stagnum).^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A stall where goods are sold.^[8]

Related words

• stagnum
• stanneus
• English stannic

Usage notes

The Latin Wiktionary gives Sn as the chemical symbol that goes with the word.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Victionarium (Latin Wiktionary), la.wiktionary.org