estopa

Forms

estopa f (plural estopas)^[1] Houaiss records estopa and stopa in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax, tow”), written Old Galician-Portuguese estopa and Old Galician-Portuguese stopa in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician estopa, Spanish estopa, Catalan estopa, French étoupe, Italian stoppa and Romanian stupă.^[5][1]

The Latin word was taken from Ancient Greek στύππη (stúppē), the coarse part of flax.^[6][7][1] The Greek word itself is probably from Pre-Greek or another Mediterranean substrate, according to Wiktionary, and the DHLF calls it of obscure origin.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DDGM's oldest vernacular records are documents of 1338 and 1341, which list estopa with oars, timber, hemp and iron, among the goods for ships.^[4] The Crónica Geral of 1344 has the word too, and Pero Menino's falconry treatise uses tow in its remedies.^[4] The sense is already “coarse fibre of flax”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages tow served for caulking ships with pitch: a document of 1456 pays for four stone of tow and three arrobas of pitch.^[4] Morais's dictionary of 1789 defines the word as the coarsest part of the flax, left in the hackle, and records the Casa da Estopa of Lisbon, a house where prostitutes and convicted women were set to unpicking old ropes.^[9] Vieira adds the coarse cloth woven from tow and the proverb on fire and tow.^[10] Figueiredo (1899) adds the fibre inside the coconut and the unpicked threads used to caulk boats.^[11]

In modern Brazil the word names above all the waste threads of weaving, sold for cleaning engines and cars.^[12][2] Houaiss also records it as a name of the jequitibá trees.^[2]

Timeline

• 1338 – first vernacular record, in a document listing goods for ships.^[4]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral uses estopa.^[4]
• 1456 – a document pays for tow and pitch.^[4]
• 1513 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Livro dos Mártires.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary gives Latin stupa for Estopa.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds the adjectives for things made of tow.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records the Casa da Estopa of Lisbon.^[9]
• 1813 – first record of the verb estopar.^[3]
• 1899 – Figueiredo adds the coconut fibre and the caulking threads.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. tow: the coarsest part of flax (linho), separated from it with the hackle (sedeiro).^[2][16][1]
2. A coarse cloth woven from tow.^[2][17]
3. The fibrous waste of any fibre, from which carded yarn is spun.^[2][18]
4. (nautical) oakum: unpicked threads used to caulk the seams of ships.^[2][19][1]
5. The fibre inside the coconut shell.^[2][16]
6. A mass of waste threads from weaving, used to clean cars and machines in workshops.^[2][12]
7. (botany) Another name for the jequitibá trees.^[2][18]

Word family

• estopada
• estopar

Related words

• estopim
• Latin stuppa
• Galician estopa

Usage notes

The phrase não meter prego nem estopa “to put in neither nail nor tow” means to take no part in a matter or a discussion.^[16][20][1] An old proverb, O fogo ao pé da estopa, vem o diabo e assopra, warns that fire next to tow needs only the devil to blow on it.^[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 k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estopa
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estopa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. estopa
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8332
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. estopa
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. étoupe
9. ^ 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, 66
10. ^ a b 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, 431
11. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. estopa
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estopa
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. estopa
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estopa
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estopa
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. estopa
17. ^ 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. estopa
18. ^ 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. estopa
19. ^ 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. estopa
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3988