estancar

Forms

estancar (first-person singular present estanco, first-person singular preterite estanquei, past participle estancado)^[1] Houaiss records both estancar and stancar in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

Houaiss considers the element ⟨estanc-⟩ of uncertain, probably pre-Roman origin, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *tankó (“to fix”); on that view the word is inherited from Vulgar Latin *extancō.^[3] The DLE gives the same Vulgar Latin verb and traces it to Proto-Celtic *ektankō (“to fix, fasten”).^[4] Corominas places the verb in a family spread over all the Romance languages whose central idea seems to have been “to close, to stop”, and takes it as probably pre-Roman, perhaps from *tanko (“I fix”), comparing Old Irish co-técim (“I curdle”), the Gaulish names Tanconus and Tancorix, and Lithuanian tankus (“thick”).^[5][6] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain.^[1]

An older view derives it from Vulgar Latin *stangō, an altered Latin stāgnō (“to form a pool”);^{[7][8][9][10]} Bluteau already took it from Medieval Latin stancare, a corruption of the Latin verb, and the DLP and Porto still give this etymology.^{[7][8][9][10]} Houaiss rejects it as phonetically impossible.^[3] Meyer-Lübke attached the Portuguese and Spanish verbs to Vulgar Latin *stancus (“tired”), the source of Italian stanco.^[8][11] Cunha, Nascentes and Aurélio simply call the origin controversial.^[12][13][14]

The same family includes Spanish estancar, Catalan estancar, Occitan estancar, French étancher, Old French estanchier, Italian stancare (“to tire”) and, without the prefix, Catalan tancar (“to close”) and Spanish atancar.^[5][6][1] From the unprefixed verb comes tanque “water tank”, first recorded in the early 16th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 15th century, with the sense “to stop the flow of, to check”.^[2][12] Corominas finds it in Zurara, in the third quarter of the 15th century, meaning “to drain, to staunch a liquid”.^[5] The related adjective is older: Cunha and Houaiss date estanco to the 14th century, and the Galician General Estoria has lagõas estancas et limosas “stagnant and muddy pools”.^[12][15][16]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that the old Portuguese verb meant above all “to drain, to dry up a liquid” and “to tire, to exhaust”, beside “to stop a current of water”.^[5] Cardoso (1569) translates it with Latin reprimo “I hold back”, Barbosa (1611) explains it as “to empty completely”, and Folqman (1755) gives both “to drain” and “to stop flowing”, with the example Estancou o sangue nas veas.^[17][18][19] Morais (1813) records “to tire”, “to make a ship stop taking water” and “to monopolise goods”, and Diogo do Couto's use for a trade that stopped.^[20][5] The noun estanco then came to mean a state monopoly and, in Portugal, a tobacconist's shop.^[15] Vieira (1871) adds “to quench thirst” and “to dry someone's tears”.^[21] Today the main senses are to stop a liquid, especially blood, from flowing, and figuratively to put an end to something or to halt.^[2][14][1]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records of estancar and stancar.^[2][12]
• third quarter of the 15th century – Zurara uses it for draining a liquid.^[5]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin reprimo.^[17]
• c. 1600 – Diogo do Couto uses it for trade that stopped.^[5]
• 1611 – Barbosa: “to empty completely”.^[18]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau derives it from Low Latin stancare.^[7]
• 1755 – Folqman gives “to drain” and “to stop flowing”.^[19]
• 1813 – Morais records the sense “to monopolise”.^[20]
• 1871 – Vieira adds “to quench thirst”.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive and pronominal) To stop or cease flowing (of a liquid); to staunch: A enfermeira conseguiu estancar o sangue.^{[2][14][22][1]}
2. (transitive, intransitive and pronominal) To drain, to dry up: o poço estancou de vez.^[2][22]
3. (transitive, figurative) To exhaust, as with taxes.^[2][21]
4. (figurative) To put an end to or come to an end; to stagnate (estagnar).^[2][14][1]
5. (intransitive) To stop short, to halt.^[2][23]
6. (transitive, figurative) To quench (saciar) (thirst), to satisfy (a desire).^[2][14][23]
7. (transitive) To monopolise (monopolizar) (goods), as the state does with an estanco.^[2][14][22]
8. (transitive) To make (a vessel) watertight (estanque).^[14][23]
9. To tire, to wear out.^[9][10]

Word family

• estanco
• estanque
• estancamento
• estanca-rios

Related words

• tanque
• estagnar
• Spanish estancar
• French étancher

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estancar
3. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estanc-
4. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. estancar
5. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 770
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estancar
7. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estancar
8. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 195
9. ^ a b c 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. estancar
10. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3947
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8225
12. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estancar
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. estancar
14. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estancar
15. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estanco
16. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. estancar
17. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estancar
18. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estancar
19. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estancar
20. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 771
21. ^ 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, 392
22. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. estancar
23. ^ a b c 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. estancar