Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word estio
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Inherited
- First attested
- 1200s spelt estyo More words from the 13th century
- Inherited from
- Latin aestivus
- Ultimate origin
- Latin aestās
From the same root
Pronunciation
Forms
estio m (plural estios)[1] Houaiss records estyo in the 13th century, estio in the 14th and stio in the 15th.[2]
Etymology
It is inherited from Latin aestīvus (“of summer”), used as a noun with tempus (“season”) understood, and written Old Galician-Portuguese estio in the oldest texts.[2][3][4][1] Juan Ruiz has Old Spanish estivo in one manuscript, beside the form without /v/.[1][5]
The same Latin word is Spanish estío, Catalan estiu and Occitan estiu.[6][7] It has also given Italian stio, a summer linen cloth.[6] The Latin adjective is formed from aestās (“summer”) with -īvus.[1] De Vaan derives aestās from *aissāts and *h₂eydʰ-teh₂t- (“burning, heat”), from the root of aedēs.[8]
Earliest recorded meaning
Houaiss's first record is of the 13th century, spelt estyo, from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and Cunha gives the same century.[2][3] A cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X mocks those who are eno meio do estio / estar tremendo sen frio “in the middle of summer, trembling without cold”.[9] Another cantiga doubts that a cold love will last atá o estio “until summer”.[10]
Semantic evolution
The word has kept the sense “summer” from the medieval texts on; the CTA has it in the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença of 1496.[11][9] Cardoso (1569) glosses it with Latin aestas, and Feijó (1734) and Morais (1789) define it as the hot season between spring and autumn.[12][13][14] Vieira (1871) quotes Camões's Lusíadas for the Mekong that floods in summer.[15]
The old Caldas Aulete has estio da existência, the time of full vigour after youth, and the use of estio as an adjective, “of summer”.[16] Wiktionary marks the noun as literary or poetic beside the everyday verão.[1] In Rio Grande do Sul it is the hot dry part of the year.[17] From it come estiar “to stop raining” and estiagem “dry spell”, the latter first recorded in 1881.[3][6]
Timeline
- 1200s – first record, spelt estyo.[2]
- 1300s – the spelling estio.[2]
- 1400s – the spelling stio.[2]
- 1496 – estio in the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença.[11]
- 1569 – Cardoso glosses estio with Latin aestas.[12]
- 1734 – Feijó defines it as the season between spring and autumn.[13]
- 1881 – first record of estiagem and estiada.[3]
Meanings
Noun
- (literary) summer; verão.[2][18][19][1]
- Hot, usually dry weather; the dry season.[19][20][1]
- (figurative) The mature age that follows youth: o estio da vida.[2][19][20]
Adjective
Word family
- estiagem
- estiar
- estiada
Related words
Usage notes
In the Alentejo and the Algarve a separate adjective estio means “thin, slender”; the DLP calls its origin obscure.[19][16][21]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estio
- ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estio
- ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. estio
- ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 790
- ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. aestīvus
- ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. aestivus
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. aestās
- ^ a b 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. estio
- ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. estio
- ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. estio
- ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estio
- ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estio
- ^ 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, 64
- ^ 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, 425
- ^ a b 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. estio
- ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. estio
- ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estio
- ^ 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. estio
- ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. estio
- ^ 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. estio
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Estio.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/estio. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.
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