Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word estuque

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1548 spelt stuque More words from the 16th century
Borrowed from
French stuc
Ultimate origin
Lombardic *stukki
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
French stuc
Portuguese estuque

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /isˈtu.ki/, /esˈtu.ki/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /iʃˈtu.ki/, /eʃˈtu.ki/[1]
  • Portugal: /(i)ʃˈtu.kɨ/[1]

Forms

estuque m (plural estuques)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French stuc, from Italian stucco.[2][3][4][5][6] Vieira, Silva Bastos and Figueiredo give the Italian word as the direct source, Michaelis the French one.[7][8][9][10]

Houaiss dates the French word to 1524 and the Italian, in the sense “ornamental relief”, to before 1355; the DELI records the sense “plaster, mortar of gypsum and glue” only from before 1537.[2][11][12] The Italian word is from Lombardic *stukki (“crust, coating”), which Houaiss and Cunha write stuhhi, a word restored from Old High German stucki (“piece”), the ancestor of German Stück.[2][3][12][11] The word Spanish estuco also comes from the Italian.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is of 1548, in the spelling stuque, for the plaster of marble dust, lime, gypsum and sand used to coat walls and ceilings.[2]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) glosses it opus marmoratum and Folqman (1755) albarium opus, Latin names for plasterwork.[13][14] Morais in 1789 describes a mixture of fine lime and marble dust laid on a lattice of thin boards to plaster ceilings.[15] From the material the word passed to the ornaments made with it.[2][4] In Brazil it also means a wall of clay, taipa, and in the north-east and in popular speech the ceiling of a house.[2][5][16][17]

Timeline

  • 1548 – first record, spelt stuque.[2]
  • 1571 – the spelling estuque.[2]
  • 1697 – Pereira glosses it opus marmoratum.[13]
  • 1741 – a letter written in Lisbon mentions estuques.[18]
  • 1789 – Morais describes how plaster is laid on ceilings.[15]
  • 1884 – first record of estucador “plasterer”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. stucco: a plaster of gypsum, lime, marble dust and sand, used to coat walls and ceilings and to model ornaments.[2][4][5]
  2. Plasterwork; an ornament made of this plaster.[2][4][5]
  3. (Brazil) A wall of clay, taipa.[2][5]
  4. (Brazil, popular) The ceiling (teto) of a house.[17][16]

Word family

  • estucador
  • estucar
  • Italian stucco
  • French stuc

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. estuque
  3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estuque
  4. ^ 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. estuque
  5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estuque
  6. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4026
  7. ^ 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, 464
  8. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. estuque
  9. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 576
  10. ^ 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. estuque
  11. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. stucco
  12. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. stuc
  13. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estuque
  14. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estuque
  15. ^ 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, 73
  16. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. estuque
  17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. estuque
  18. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. estuque

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Estuque.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/estuque. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·