estanho

Forms

estanho m (usually uncountable, plural estanhos)^[1] The Old Galician-Portuguese form was estanno.^[1] Houaiss records stanho in the 15th century, and a private letter of 1542 has estano.^[2][3]

Etymology

Houaiss has it inherited from Latin stagnum (“tin”), the old and classical Latin form, probably Gaulish, which existed beside stannum, the spelling much used in the Middle Ages.^[2] Corominas also says that the first is the form of the best manuscripts from Pliny to Isidore, that the second is found only in poorer ones, and that all the Romance words come from the first.^[4] Wiktionary gives Old Galician-Portuguese estanno as the medieval form.^[1]

Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio and the DLP derive the word instead from stanneus (“of tin”), the adjective of the second Latin form.^[5][6][7][8]

The same Latin word is Galician estaño, Spanish estaño, Catalan estany, Occitan estanh, French étain and Italian stagno.^[9][1] Houaiss dates the Spanish word to about 1250, the Italian to the 13th century and the Old French to the 12th.^[2]

In Latin the word meant at first an alloy of silver and lead, in Pliny and Suetonius;^[10][11] “tin” is a late sense, in Jerome and Isidore.^[10][11] Pliny said that tinning was a Gaulish invention, and Houaiss and the DHLF link the possible Gaulish source to this.^[2][12] Wiktionary gives the Latin word a Celtic source, Proto-Celtic *stagnom, and compares Irish stán.^[1] The English word tin and German Zinn are Germanic and unrelated.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau describes tin as a white, soft metal, harder than lead and softer than silver, which the chemists called Jupiter because they thought it received the influences of that planet.^[13] Morais notes that it creaks when bent.^[14] Cunha dates the verb estanhar “to tin” to 1842 and the chemical words estânico, estanífero and estanato to 1899.^[5] Today the noun also names an alloy based on tin and the objects made of it.^[2][7] Porto Editora records cara de estanho “tin face” for a shameless person.^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record.^[5]
• 14th century – Houaiss's first record.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling stanho.^[2]
• 1542 – estano in a private letter.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin stannum.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists estanhar “to tin”.^[17]
• 1842 – first record of estanhar.^[5]
• 1899 – first records of estânico and estanífero.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chemistry) tin, the chemical element of atomic number 50 (symbol Sn), a soft, silvery-white, ductile and malleable metal.^[2][7][1]
2. An alloy whose main element is tin.^[2][7]
3. An object made of such an alloy: A avó colecionava estanhos do século XIX.^[2][7]

Word family

• estanato
• estanhar
• estânico
• estanífero
• estanita

Related words

• Galician estaño

Usage notes

Houaiss, Cunha and Aurélio record a separate poetic noun estanho “the calm sea”, from Latin stagnum (“standing water, pool”), first recorded in 1842.^[2][5][7] Morais and Nascentes cite Camões's líquido estanho for the sea in Os Lusíadas.^[14][18]

Viterbo and Morais also record an old estanho meaning the footpace of an altar.^[19][20]

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 l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estanho
3. ^ a b CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. estanho
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 776
5. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estanho
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. estanho
7. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estanho
8. ^ 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. estanho
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8217b
10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. stagnum
11. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. stannum
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. étain
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estanho
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 60
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3949
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estanho
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estanho
18. ^ 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
19. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 416
20. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 772