esteio

Forms

esteio m (plural esteios)^[1] The medieval form was esteo;^[2][3] steo and esteyo appear in the 15th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is obscure, as Houaiss, Cunha and Aurélio say.^[2][3][4] The oldest form is Old Galician-Portuguese esteo, recorded from the 13th century.^[2][3]

The REW, after Barbier, takes it as inherited from Latin stilus (“stake, stem”), the source of Italian stelo “stalk” and Old Spanish estelo “pillar”.^[5] García de Diego lists Galician esteo “post” and the Portuguese word under the Latin noun, and the TLPGP labels it the same way.^[6][7] On this view it is a doublet of estilo.^[1] Cornu derived it from Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “pillar”), with a change of gender, and Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos accepted this.^[8] The REW rejects it because the gender does not match.^[5]

Others look to a Germanic word.^[8] Adolfo Coelho derived it from the English word stay.^[8] Silva Bastos and the original Caldas Aulete agree, Figueiredo with a question mark.^[9][10][11] The DLP says it is perhaps from Old English stæg, and Porto Editora traces the Old English word to Middle Dutch staeye.^[12][13] Wiktionary gives as one possibility Old French estai, from Proto-Germanic *stagą.^[1] The REW derives that Old English word, through French, only to the nautical estai “stay”, not to this word.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds isteos in a document dated, with a question mark, 1234–1236.^[15] In a cantiga d'escarnho Lopo Liaz says he will no longer carry esteos / nen arções, parts of a saddle, and in one by Estêvão da Guarda a man is tied cruamente a un esteo “cruelly to a stake”.^[15][16] A document of 1309 has con quatro esteos “with four posts”, and in the Crónica Troiana the posts of all the palaces are of crystal.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Morais describes the esteio as a post of wood, or also of stone, that bears a load, and quotes figurative uses such as esteyo da fé “pillar of the faith”.^[17] The figurative “support, protection” is now one of the main senses.^[2][4] The original Caldas Aulete has a botanical plural, the accessory supports of plants such as tendrils and stipules.^[10] In northern Portugal an esteio is one of the thick stakes, or granite posts, that hold up the vines, and the upright of a well sweep.^[7][18] The DLP has a nautical sense, an iron brace in a ship.^[12] Esteio is also the name of a municipality in Rio Grande do Sul.^[1]

Timeline

• 1234–1236? – isteos in a document.^[15]
• 13th century – first record of esteo.^[2][3]
• 1309 – con quatro esteos.^[15]
• 15th century – the spellings steo and esteyo.^[2]
• 1478 – esteo, a pillar under a beam, in a document of Noia in Galicia.^[15]
• 1513 – esteo in the Livro dos Mártires.^[19]
• 1562 – Cardoso's dictionary records the verb estear “to prop”.^[20]
• 1789 – Morais has esteyos of stone.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A prop, post or pillar of wood, metal or stone that holds something up; an escora: Os esteios do alpendre estavam podres.^[2][4][1]
2. (figurative) A mainstay, support or protection: A irmã mais velha foi o esteio da família.^[2][4][1]
3. (nautical) An iron brace that strengthens parts of a ship.^[12][1]
4. (botany, in the plural) The accessory parts by which plants hold on, such as tendrils and stipules.^[2][10]
5. (northern Portugal) A stake or granite post that supports vines.^[7][18]

Word family

• estear

Related words

• estilo
• estai
• Galician esteo

Usage notes

In Trás-os-Montes esteio is also a place where cattle are gathered, and in Madeira a spell of fine weather; the DLP derives this word from estio and the original Caldas Aulete from estear in another sense.^[12][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. esteio
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. esteio
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. esteio
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8260
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. stilus
7. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. esteio
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. 196
9. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. esteio
10. ^ a b c d 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. esteio
11. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. esteio
12. ^ a b c d 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. esteio
13. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3957
14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8216
15. ^ a b c d e f 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. esteo
16. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. esteo
17. ^ 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, 61
18. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. esteo
20. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estear