stuppa

Forms

stuppa f (genitive stuppae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek στύππη (stúppē, “tow”), which Wiktionary takes to be probably from Pre-Greek or another Mediterranean substrate.^[2][1][3] It is less correctly spelled ⟨stūpa⟩ and ⟨stīpa⟩.^[3] Isidore derives it from ⟨stīpāre⟩ “to pack”, because the seams of ships are packed with it.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short cite Varro in Gellius and Lucretius among the earliest authors.^[3] Köbler starts with Cicero, and dates Lucretius 96–55 BC.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant the coarse part of flax or hemp, tow, oakum, as in Lucretius, Caesar, Livy, Virgil and Pliny.^[2][3][6] Isidore calls it the tow of hemp or flax.^[4]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant the coarse part of flax, tow.^[7] In Medieval Latin it was also a candle-wick.^[8] It survives in Italian stoppa, French étoupe and Spanish and Portuguese estopa.^[1] Old French estoper “to plug, stop up”, from estope “tow”, gave English estop, and Etymonline reports that many derive Germanic words for “to stop up” from a Vulgar Latin *stuppāre.^[9]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^[3][6][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it.^[3][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains it from stīpāre.^[4][5]
• 1530s – English estop is recorded, through Old French.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Coarse flax or hemp, tow, oakum.^[2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) A candle-wick.^[8]

Word family

• stuppārius
• stuppātor
• stuppeus

Related words

• stīpō
• English estop
• English stop

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com