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stupă

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word stupă

stupă1 tow

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1650–1700 Anonymus Caransebesiensis
Inherited from
Latin stuppa
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek στύππη
Etymology tree of stupă1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin stuppa
Romanian stupă
From the same root · stupă1
Latin stuppō ← stuppa

Pronunciation

Forms

stupă f (plural stupe)[1]

Etymology

The word for tow is inherited from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax or hemp, tow”).[2][3][4][5][1][6] Latin took it from Ancient Greek στύππη (stúppē).[1][7] Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu, Philippide and the REW, and compares Italian stoppa, Spanish estopa, Portuguese estopa, French étoupe and Albanian stupë.[2] Graur lists it with astupa “to stop up”, from astuppō, among the Romanian descendants of the Latin family.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Latin–Romanian glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis (c. 1650–1700).[3][5] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) glosses it with Latin stupa, stuppa, Hungarian szösz and German Werg “tow”.[9]

Semantic evolution

The word names the short, coarse fibres of wool, flax or hemp left in the teeth of the hackle or carding comb, and by extension hemp tow in general.[5][3] Pamfile lists it among the kinds of hemp fibre, beside fuior, câlți and zgrebeni.[5] It then came to mean a wad of tow for cleaning tools and machines, and the wad of tow, rags or paper rammed over the powder in a gun.[4][10] In the Banat, Scriban gives it as the best quality of hemp tow.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1650–1700 – the glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.[3]
  • 1801 – stupa in Klein's dictionary.[11]
  • 1822 – Tiktin's first dated record.[12]
  • 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (popular, collective) The short fibres of hemp, flax or wool left between the teeth of the carding comb after the long fibre is taken out; tow.[4][3][1]
  2. Hemp or cotton tow used to clean tools and machines.[4][3]
  3. A wad of tow, rags or paper placed over the powder or shot in a gun or cartridge.[4][10]

stupă2 stupa

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1972 Mic dicționar enciclopedic
Borrowed from
French stupa
Ultimate origin
Sanskrit स्तूप

Pronunciation

Forms

stupă f (plural stupe)[1]

Etymology

The word for the Buddhist monument is borrowed from French stupa.[3][4][5][13][1] The French word is a learned loan from Sanskrit स्तूप (stūpa).[1] Marcu and Maneca give both the French form and the Sanskrit one.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Mic dicționar enciclopedic of 1972.[3][5]

Timeline

  • 1972 – the Mic dicționar enciclopedic, the first record.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Buddhism) A stupa: a Buddhist funerary monument with a polygonal base, a cylindrical body and a dome over a chamber that holds relics or ashes.[4][3][13][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. stupă
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1026
  4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1062
  5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. stupă
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8332
  7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1256
  8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 94
  9. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 682
  10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 278
  11. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 452
  12. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. stúpă
  13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. stupă
  14. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. stupă

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Stupă.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/stup%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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