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
Pronunciation
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
- stucco: a plaster of gypsum, lime, marble dust and sand, used to coat walls and ceilings and to model ornaments.[2][4][5]
- Plasterwork; an ornament made of this plaster.[2][4][5]
- (Brazil) A wall of clay, taipa.[2][5]
- (Brazil, popular) The ceiling (teto) of a house.[17][16]
Word family
- estucador
- estucar
Related words
- Italian stucco
- French stuc
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estuque
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estuque
- ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4026
- ^ 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
- ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. estuque
- ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 576
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. stuc
- ^ 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
- ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estuque
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. estuque
- ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. estuque
- ^ 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.
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