estame

Forms

estame m (plural estames)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stāmen (“thread of the distaff; warp”), a learned form beside estambre, which came from Spanish.^[2][3][4] Houaiss calls it the learned divergent of that word, and dates that word in Portuguese only from 1766, as a loan of Spanish estambre.^[2][5] García de Diego, however, gives this word, in the sense “woollen yarn”, as the old Portuguese and Galician outcome of the Latin word.^[6]

The same Latin word is Italian stame, French étaim, Catalan estam and the Spanish word.^[7][8] In Latin it named the vertical threads of the loom, which Varro already linked with stō (“to stand”).^[9] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Italic *stāmen and Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂mn̥, a noun of *steh₂- (“to stand”), and compares Ancient Greek στῆμα (stêma) and Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐍉𐌼𐌰 (stōma).^[1]

Nascentes explains the botanical sense by the likeness of the slender stamens of flowers to threads of wool or cotton.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1524–1585, citing Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcelos (his siglum JFVascUlis).^[2] Cunha dates the word to the 17th century, in the sense “weaving thread”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the thread of the loom the word passed to the thread, or course, of a life: os estames da vida.^[2][10] Vieira and Aulete quote Filinto Elísio's line Doirávamos da vida o estame curto, and Aulete Camilo's tears that wore away os estames da vida.^[11][12] Cunha dates the botanical sense, the male organ of the flower, to 1813, and Houaiss records a form estamine in 1783.^[3][2] Vieira (1871) puts the botanical sense first.^[11]

Timeline

• 1524–1585 – first record, in Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcelos.^[2]
• 17th century – Cunha's date for “weaving thread”.^[3]
• 1783 – the form estamine.^[2]
• 1813 – first date of the botanical sense.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira defines the stamen as the male sexual organ of plants and gives the thread of life as a figurative sense.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thread for weaving; estambre.^[2][10][13]
2. (figurative) The thread of existence, the course of a life.^[2][10][14]
3. (botany) A stamen, the male organ of a flower, made of the filete that bears the antera, in which the pollen grains form.^[2][10][1]

Word family

• estaminado
• estaminal
• estaminífero

Related words

• estambre
• estamenha
• Latin stamen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estame
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estame
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. estame
5. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estambre
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. stamen
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8220
8. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. estame
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. stāmen
10. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estame
11. ^ a b c Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 391
12. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. estame
13. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. estame
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. estame