Etymology: First in 14th cent.; < or cognate with Middle Low German stump (masculine), stumpe (feminine), (Middle) Dutch stomp (masculine), substantive use of Middle Low German stump, (Middle) Dutch stomp adjective, mutilated, blunt, dull; corresponding to Old High German (Middle High German, modern German) stumpf adjective and noun masculine; the late Old Norse stump-r (masculine), Middle Swedish stumper (modern Swedish stump), Danish stump adjective and noun, are probably < Low GermanThe senses of the word, in English and other Germanic languages, show close parallelism with those of stub n. and its cognates, but etymological connection is difficult to establish. On the other hand, there is no morphological objection to the view that the Germanic root *stump- is an ablaut-variant of *stamp- (see stamp v.), but this is not supported by any striking similarity of sense.

Etymology: Of obscure history.The late appearance of the word suggests that it is an adaptation (influenced by stump n.¹) of the far older French synonym estompe , which, along with the related verb estomper , †estomber , appears a1700 in De la Hire Traité de la Pratique de la Peinture, published in Mém. de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences 1666–1699 (1730) IX. 658. De la Hire evidently regarded the words as established in use; he suggests that estompe may be a corruption of étoupe (earlier estoupe ) tow, link. This is impossible; most etymologists regard the noun as derived from the verb, which some believe to be < Dutch stompen or afstompen to dull, blunt, though there seems to be no evidence that either of these verbs was ever used in the sense of French estomper . The stump for crayon drawing is elaborately described, as an instrument used by French pastellists, in A. Browne's Appendix Art Painting (1675), but without mention of either the English or the French name. Browne says (in this copying W. Sanderson Graphice ii. 78, published 1658) that a ‘stubbed pencil’ (apparently = ‘brush’, not ‘crayon’ or ‘lead pencil’), sometimes ‘stuffed with cotton or bombast’, was employed by some artists for the same purpose. Obviously a ‘stubbed pencil’ could be called in English a ‘stump’ (stump n.¹ 3); and the equivalent Dutch stompe could be employed in the same way. On the whole, considering that in the 17th cent. the art of crayon drawing received much improvement in Holland, the likeliest view seems to be that the word stompe was applied (with no intention of using a technical term) to the ‘stubbed pencil’ by Dutch artists working in French studios; and that in the adapted form estompe it became the French name for the improved instrument invented in France. On this view the English word would be an adaptation of the French, as the relative chronology suggests.

Etymology: < stump v.¹

Etymology: Partly from the attributive use of stump n.¹, but perhaps partly an original adjective corresponding to or adopted < Dutch, Low German stomp.